Prison department prepares inmates’ profile for premature release

CHENNAI: The prison department is preparing the profiles of central prison inmates to prepare a list of convicts eligible for premature release to mark the 115th birth anniversary of the DMK founder and late chief minister CN Annadurai.

Sources said certain changes have been made to guidelines/eligibility criteria for the amnesty scheme, based on which the department has commenced the process of collecting and compiling details of convicts serving life term for premature release.

“There are more than 5,500 life convicts in the nine central prisons in Tamil Nadu. We will prepare the list of eligible inmates as per the guidelines and forward it to the government. The new guidelines, which categorise prisoners who complete 14 years to 20 years of imprisonment, give a glimpse of hope to several inmates who were not considered for premature release two years ago,” a senior official told DT Next.

Inmates aged 60 years and above and completed 20 years of imprisonment as on September 15 this year would be considered for premature release. “This provision is a new addition to the guideline framed two years ago. The minimum imprisonment period has also been revised to 14 years from 10 years,” said another official.

Prisoners with serious health complications, multiple comorbidities (with two or more chronic medical/ psychiatric conditions), and severe mental illness would also be considered for premature release irrespective of these eligibility conditions.

“We have submitted the profiles of 18 to 20 inmates from Coimbatore and Salem central prisons. Now, we are in the process of preparing a second list of eligible inmates,” said an official attached to the Coimbatore range.

As was the case before, the inmates convicted of heinous crimes would not be considered for the amnesty scheme. The officials would also look into factors like nature of offences and its effect on society, fitness for rehabilitation into society, law and order implication, and public interest to consider each eligible convict’s premature release.

Fulfilling the eligibility criteria prescribed in the guidelines does not confer any rights for premature release, which is the sole discretion and prerogative of the government.

Under the new guidelines, life convicts who were considered for premature release in 2021 to mark Anna’s 113th birth anniversary but still remain in prison, would be also considered, said a senior official. The government had announced that 700 reformed prisoners would be released that year, of which 323 have come out of jail.