THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Close on the heels of the death of a 72-year-old inmate of the Poojapura Central Prison due to Covid-19, the Prisons Department has decided to further decongest prisons in the state. The department will also request the government to seek the High Court’s nod in releasing all eligible remand/under-trial prisoners on interim bail.
The government had earlier ratified the proposal of the department to release all eligible prisoners on parole, a decision that helped 1,100 prisoners move out amid the pandemic. Another 690 under-trial prisoners were also released on interim bail as per an HC order.
Interim bail was granted to those accused of cases that could invite less than seven years’ imprisonment and had no criminal antecedents, on March 25. However, the present outbreak among the Poojapura inmates — 362 prisoners have so far tested positive there — has prompted the department to knock the government’s door again.
As granting interim bail is a prerogative of the courts, the Prisons Department had approached the HC requesting it to pass an order, once again, allowing jail officials to send eligible prisoners on interim bail. But the HC sought the state government’s opinion on the matter.
“If the government says that interim bail can be given as in the previous case, and the court allows it, then a lot more under-trial prisoners could be released. It will further reduce crowding in prisons. We will request the government to take a suitable decision so that we can resolve the issue at the earliest,” said a senior officer.
The efforts of the department to decongest jails has succeeded to an extent as the total number of prisoners in the state has come down from around 8,000 to 4,500. However, in Poojapura, the decongestion efforts have yielded only modest results. The current strength of inmates there is 960 compared to the initial figure of 1,300.
“If the court allows more under-trials to move out through interim bail, it will help us in micro-managing things so that normalcy is restored in prisons,” the officer added.
Meanwhile, the authorities have decided to enhance the nutritional quality of the food being served to the infected prisoners in Poojapura. A decision in this regard was given to the Jail Superintendent earlier this week, sources said.