Delhi prisons rule: In an unprecedented move, prisons in Delhi have laid out new rules for inmates during their stay. According to an official statement, the prisons will be granted remission based on their good conduct during the time spent as undertrials.
Currently, only convicted inmates are given consideration for remission depending on their behaviour. A convict is someone who has been sentenced by a court after being found guilty of a crime, while an undertrial prisoner is an accused person kept in judicial custody during the trial in court.
"Now, senior officers say that a new rule has been added that will allow considering inmates for remission based on their conduct even as undertrials. The remission, however, will be added to their sentence only after they are convicted," the official statement said.
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Aim of the new rule
This is a move towards correctional administration in Delhi prisons, which will help them in their efforts to reform and rehabilitate prisoners so they can rejoin mainstream society at large.
"It is ironical that across the country, most of the rules have been framed for only the convicts. All the remission, work wages facility, parole, furlough, and open institutions are mainly meant for convicts. This is despite the fact that more than 90 per cent of the inmates are undertrial prisoners," said a senior officer from the Delhi prisons department. He further said that there is hardly any motivation among the undertrials to maintain good conduct, that is why a new rule was added to the jail manual.
Delhi prisons include 90% of undertrial prisoners
The National Crime Records Bureau data of 2021 shows that the percentage of undertrial inmates with respect to the total prison population was approximately 77%. In Delhi prisons, the percentage of undertrial prisoners is even more than the national percentage and is presently above 90%, it stated.
Since most of the time spent by an inmate in jail is as an undertrial, the new rule states that any inmate, who is eligible for ordinary remission will be eligible for award of remission for good conduct during his period of incarceration as an undertrial prisoner.
(With PTI inputs)
