Covid fallout: Inmates eligible for parole but want to stay on

SOME OF them are worried about how they will survive during the Covid lockdown. Others fear they will become a burden on their families in this difficult time. The rest just want to wrap up their jail time as quickly as possible.

All put together, at least 26 convicts lodged in jails across Maharashtra have refused to apply for emergency parole despite being eligible. They are “not interested in being temporarily released”, according to the minutes of a meeting held in May of a state committee that was formed to recommend steps to decongest jails during Covid.

Last month, the Bombay High Court ruled that no prisoner can be compelled to obtain release on temporary bail or emergency parole without their will. “Some of the eligible prisoners have told us that they feel apprehensive about finding a job or any other forms of livelihood during the lockdown,” a Jail Superintendent told The Indian Express.

For instance, a convict in his late 30s, hailing from Odisha and with five years left in a Mumbai jail, told authorities that he feared becoming a burden on his family. “He told us that he would rather keep earning wages for his work in prison,” the Superintendent said.

In another case, an undertrial released on emergency parole a few months ago surrendered in western Maharashtra last month. “After he surrendered, he called us seeking financial help for his mother,” said Ravindra Vaidya, founder-president of Varhad, which works with convicts in Vidarbha and other areas of Maharashtra.

“We have provided dry rations to over 500 prisoners or their families who were not able to sustain themselves during the lockdown. Many of them had just been released and were being seen as a liability by their already burdened family members,” Vaidya said.

Due to depleting funds since the pandemic began, the outreach for prisoners has also reached its limit, he said.

“We have constantly been receiving calls from prisoners. Many have been seeking jobs, some have not been accepted by their families due to the nature of the crime or were not allowed entry in their villages due to fear of Covid. They were helped with admissions in shelter homes,” he said.

Since the Covid outbreak last year, when the Supreme Court ordered the decongestion of jails to ensure pandemic protocols, over 10,000 prisoners have been released on emergency parole and temporary bail from Maharashtra’s 46 jails.

During the second wave last month, 68 convicts were released on emergency parole, which is not counted as part of the prison term.

“Those who have been released from May onwards last year, will have to return and complete the rest of their sentences. They are expected to return to jails, surrendering themselves only after the Epidemic Diseases Act’s current enforcement is revoked or an extension for their relief is not granted,” said a jail official.

“Some of the convicts who have refused to apply for emergency parole have only a few months of their terms left. Instead of having to return to complete their terms again later, they have said that they want to complete the remaining prison time and be released for good,” the official said.

Besides, officials said, many do not have families to go back to or any social support. “In such a situation, they feel that at least they will get medical attention in prison or be taken to a public hospital,” said a senior jail official. Since the pandemic began, the state’s prison department has recorded 4,961 cases — 4,049 prisoners and 912 staff — and the deaths of 13 prisoners and nine staffers.

In March, Prayas, a field action project of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, released the results of a Rapid Assessment Survey of 503 persons affected by the criminal justice system.

“It emerged that 83 per cent of the respondents…reported that the earnings of the other earning members discontinued during the lockdown, thus again highlighting the vulnerable family situation post lockdown. Thus the majority of the respondents’ earning members did not have a continued income during the lockdown and thereby the income of the respondents and the family as a whole, would have seen a decline during the lockdown,” the study said.

Over 49 per cent of those surveyed were released prisoners.