High-powered committee submits report on parole and furlough to HC; says can’t recommend wearable tech to prevent parole jumping
Prisoners waiting for intake at Yerawada Jail in Pune. File pic
Maharashtra will not be taking a leaf from its western counterparts or Orange is the New Black to introduce wearable tags that will keep a tab on inmates out on furlough and parole. In the backdrop of parole and furlough issues gaining traction in the media following recent incident of Pallavi Purkayastha’s killer Sajjad Mogul jumping parole and prisoners revolting against the new parole and furlough rules, the high-powered committee appointed by the Bombay High Court submitted its report on Thursday.
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State of the jail
Currently, from the 24 jails across the state, around 672 prisoners are missing — 343 were out on furlough, 329 on parole. The committee was constituted on August 4, 2016, when inmate Ramzan Hussain was reported missing and the Bombay High Court asked the state government to form a committee of senior level officers of prisons and home department and take a call on parole and furlough rules in the state.
Also read: Another rapist gives Nashik jail the slip
Accordingly, a committee headed by Dr Vijay Satbir Singh, additional chief secretary, appeal and security, Home department was formed. The committee also had senior officers like Dr BK Upadhyay, additional director general of police, Prisons and Correctional Services, Sanjay Kumar from CID and Brijesh Singh from the Information Department.
Amendments introduced
On August 26, the committee amended and brought in the new Parole and Furlough Rules, which stated that no inmate would be granted furlough if his bail application is pending or appeal is filed against him in a lower court. Additionally, if the mental health of the prisoner is not sound, or the accused has been arrested for heinous crimes like dacoity, human trafficking, terrorism, kidnapping for ransom, smuggling of narcotic or psychotropic substances, rape and murder; the request for either will be denied.
For parole, the new rule permits emergency parole for seven days in rare cases like death of relatives, marriage in family. Though if somebody is been sentenced to five or fourteen years, after completion of one year and three years respectively, he/ she should be granted parole.
You can run, you can hide
After a practical trial at the Yerawada Jail, however, the committee and the prison’s department has concluded that its not possible to fix Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips or wearable tags on inmates and has instead suggested several others measures that the state prisons department has started implementing.
Also read: 22 convicts jumped parole this year from Nashik jail
“For the trial, QBIT Microsystem gave a pure tag and smart phone tracker demo to the authorities, but the report submitted cites that since it requires a smartphone to be handed to an inmate heading out for furlough/parole, who can then find ways to manipulate the system or simply switch off the phone and vanish, it may not be practically feasible,” said Dr Upadhyay.
The report also points out that the alert messages that will be sent to the prisoner are in English and so they might not be able to read them.
Instead, the committee has suggested, and also started implementing in the 44 jails, measures like recording biometric details, including iris scan and fingerprints. It has also resorted to traditional methods like publishing photos of missing parole and furlough inmates in newspapers.
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