Prisoners

The Central government will provide financial support to states in order to extend relief to those poor prisoners who are unable to avail bail or get released from prison

The Supreme Court on Friday directed that all convicts and undertrial prisoners, who were released during the COVID-19 pandemic in a move to decongest jails, to surrender within 15 days. A bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said undertrial prisoners, who were released on emergency bail during the pandemic, can move for regular bail before competent courts after their surrender. "All the convicts who were released during COVID-19 pandemic after their surrender can move competent courts for suspension of their sentence", the bench said. Several convicts and undertrial prisoners, mostly those who were booked for non-heinous offences, were released during the pandemic in various states on the recommendations of high-powered committee set up in pursuant to directions of the apex court.

"The judiciary is taking many efforts undoubtedly in this regard but helping undertrials families who are extremely below the poverty line is not an initiative that is been looked into"

A prisoner cannot be made to suffer due to the inadequacy of policies and a firm attitude by the court was needed to "awaken the relaxed authorities from their slack approach" towards prisoners' fundamental rights, the Delhi High Court has observed. The court made the observations while issuing a slew of guidelines for quantifying and assessing the compensation to be paid to a prisoner for injuries sustained while working in jail. In case a convict suffers work-related amputation or a life-threatening injury, the court said, the jail superintendent will be duty-bound to inform the concerned jail inspecting judge within 24 hours of the incident. A three-member committee comprising Director General (Prisons) of Delhi, medical superintendent of a government hospital and secretary of Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) of the concerned district will be constituted to assess and quantify the compensation to be paid to the victim, it said. The court also said that interim ...

At the end of 2022, 539 convicts were on death row - the highest number of prisoners facing the gallows since 2016

According to the government spokesman, at least 196 prisoners, sentenced to jail up to 10 years, were released before time under the 'Amrit Mahotsava' scheme

President Joe Biden signed into law Tuesday a bill requiring the federal Bureau of Prisons to overhaul outdated security systems and fix broken surveillance cameras after rampant staff sexual abuse, inmate escapes and high-profile deaths. The bipartisan Prison Camera Reform Act, which passed the Senate last year and the House on December 14, requires the Bureau of Prisons to evaluate and enhance security camera, radio and public address systems at its 122 facilities. The agency must submit a report to Congress within three months detailing deficiencies and a plan to make needed upgrades. Those upgrades are required within three years and the bureau must submit annual progress reports to lawmakers. Failing and inadequate security cameras have allowed inmates to escape from federal prisons and hampered investigations. They've been an issue in inmate deaths, including that of financier Jeffrey Epstein at a federal jail in New York City in 2019. The Justice Department's internal watchd

Sedition, bail law, and criminal law reforms--we look at some of the major announcements for criminal justice in India

Russian citizen Viktor Bout was exchanged for US basketball player Brittney Griner at the Abu Dhabi airport, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced

Among those released were two officers, as well as 48 sergeants and soldiers, Yermak wrote on Telegram on Thursday

At least five inmates were killed and another 23 people were injured in the latest riot to roil Ecuador's prison system, authorities said

A clash between inmates armed with guns and knives inside the Latacunga prison in central Ecuador on Monday left at least 15 people dead and 20 injured, authorities said. Officials attributed the fighting to national and international drug trafficking groups which have turned the Andean nation's prisons into the scene of repeated massacres as the groups fight for power and drug distribution rights. Ecuador's national penitentiary service confirmed the death toll in the Latacunga prison, located 50 miles (80 kilometres) south of the capital of Quito. Agents are still searching the prison's pavilions for bodies. Videos in which gunfire and the screams of inmates can be heard were posted on social media. Some 316 inmates were killed inside Ecuador's prisons last year, according to the penitentiary service. So far this year there have been 90 deaths. The worst massacre took place in September of last year in the Litoral Penitentiary in Guayaquil, where 125 prisoners were killed. Ecua

Venezuela on Saturday freed seven Americans imprisoned in the South American country in exchange for the release of two nephews of President Nicholas Maduro's wife who had been jailed for years by the United States on drug smuggling convictions, a senior U.S. official said. The swap of the Americans, including five oil executives held for nearly five years, is the largest trade of detained citizens ever carried out by the Biden administration. We are relieved and gratified to be welcoming back to their families today seven Americans who had been wrongfully detained for too long in Venezuela, said Joshua Geltzer, the deputy homeland security adviser. It amounts to a rare gesture of goodwill by Maduro as the socialist leader looks to rebuild relations with the U.S. after vanquishing most of his domestic opponents. The deal follows months of back channel diplomacy by Washington's top hostage negotiator and other U.S. officials secretive talks with a major oil producer that took on ...

Besides, Saudi Arabia mediated a release of 10 foreigners by Russia under the exchange, according to the Saudi Foreign Ministry

Five Muslim men arrested for an offence have alleged that a Rajgarh district jail officer forced them to shave their beards, following which a senior Madhya Pradesh prison official on Wednesday said a probe was on into the matter. A Congress MLA alleged that these men were abused in the jail, while All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi claimed it was an act of "custodial torture". The five men - Kalim Khan, Talib Khan, Arif Khan, Salman Khan alias Bhola and Wahid Khan - were sent to the district jail on September 13 after being arrested under Indian Penal Code Section 151 (disturbing public peace). They were released on September 15. On Tuesday, Bhopal Congress MLA Arif Masood along with the five men met MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra. Masood accused the jail authorities of forcing the five men to shave their beards and demanded action against the jail authorities. He alleged that these men were also abused in the jail. Masood later said Mishra

Prisoners in Punjab can now spend some time with their spouses as the prisons department has begun conjugal visits for inmates from Tuesday, claiming to be the first state to launch such a facility. Initially, conjugal visits will be allowed at the central jail in Goindwal Sahib, new district jail in Nabha and women's jail in Bathinda, a senior official of the prisons department said. Hardcore criminals, gangsters, high risk prisoners and inmates involved in sexual related offences will, however, not be allowed to avail this facility. The visits -- allowed for prisoners exhibiting good conduct -- will last for two hours and the department has designated a separate room with an attached bathroom, the official said. "Priority will be given to those inmates who have had the longest stay in jails," the official said. "According to the information we have, Punjab is the first state to implement conjugal visits in the country," he claimed. The department expects that this initiative wi

Shifting of prisoners from Jammu and Kashmir to outside the Union Territory is a purely administrative exercise undertaken due to overcrowding of jails, Director General Prisons, H K Lohia, said here on Saturday. Lohia was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function at Central Jail Srinagar. It (shifting of prisoners) is an administrative matter. If the prisoners in a jail are more than its capacity, then some of them have to be shifted outside. For that process, all parameters are checked. But, it is not like we cannot deal with the radicalisation here and we have to send them outside where it can be dealt. So, it is an administrative exercise at best, the DG Prisons said. He was responding to a question over the reports of 150 detenues, including terrorists, having been shifted to jails outside J-K after they were allegedly found involved in radicalising other prisoners. Lohia said radicalisation inside jails was not a serious issue, and the department was taking care o

In 2021, govt spent Rs 1,624.4 crore, or 77%, on undertrials alone

Recidivism has been improving after the pandemic

Globally, India ranks sixth, after Liechtenstein (91.7 per cent), San Marino (88.9 per cent), Haiti (81.9 per cent), Gabon (80.2 per cent), and Bangladesh (80 per cent)