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ShareBangalore: India plans to change the way it looks at its criminals. The Centre is working on a radical prison reform plan that would not only decongest jails but also decriminalise certain offences.They are looking at alternatives to imprisonment. This means criminals arrested for smaller, non-violent offences will not be packed off to jails. They will be dealt with reformative methods.
And what are these reformative methods?Compensation, deferred sentences (particularly in case of minors), verbal and economic sanctions, provisional sentencing, community service, conditional discharge, release under judicial supervision andimposition of fines are some of the alternatives the ministry of law and justice is looking at.
It is learnt that convicts serving less than one-year imprisonment for non-violent offences, juveniles, drug addicts and women are expected to be covered under the new measures. This is the second major step to decongest jails after the government started releasing undertrials on bail, paroles and conditional releases from January 26. As part of the National Mission for Delivery of Justice and Legal Reforms, 1,543 undertrials have been released from Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Goa and West Bengal.
“This is part of the process to decongest jails. We are consulting experts to work out a rationale system. There is a need for comprehensive reform in criminal legislation system and certain changes in sentencing practices. The human rights of offenders need to be protected,” M Veerappa Moily, minister for law and justice, told DNA.
The government going through similar reforms adopted by developed countries and the Tokyo Rules (United Nations standard minimum rules for non-custodial measures list) that have a wide range of dispositions other than imprisonment that can be imposed at the sentencing stage and are believed to have an acceptable punitive element.
