TN plans policy on premature release of jailbirds

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government is all set to come up with a policy for the premature release of reformed prisoners. The move, according to officials, is aimed at streamlining the process of identifying and releasing eligible prisoners as well as to iron out the flaws in the existing mechanism.

Officials of the Law and Home departments have come together to frame the policy. The decision was taken after several prisoners and their families moved the court challenging the government orders alleging indifference in selection of eligible convicts for release.

“The process for framing the policy commenced three weeks ago. The required details such as the profile of prisoners — crime committed, number of years in prison, conduct in prison etc — are being collected. The policy is being framed after a court direction,” said a Prisons official.

Governments, be that of the AIADMK or the DMK, follow the practice of issuing government orders for the premature release to mark the birth anniversaries of leaders including former chief ministers CN Annadurai and MG Ramachandran. But, these orders were criticised for political “bias”.

“In 1994, the then AIADMK government issued an order to follow the recommendations of the All India Committee on Prison Reforms to allow the premature release of convicts who have completed 20 years of imprisonment on humanitarian grounds. But this was not followed,” said P Pugalenthi, an advocate.

“If the government follows the 1994 policy, at least 400 convicts from the Central prisons would walk out as free men,” he said and continued that both Dravidian parties decided on the premature release as per their whims and fancies and tweaked rules to suit their agenda.

Six convicts in Leelavathi’s murder case were among the 1,404 freed under the amnesty scheme by the DMK regime on September 15, 2008, to mark the birth centenary of DMK founder CN Annadurai.

The government reduced the eligibility criteria from 10 years imprisonment to seven years, to facilitate the release of the councillor’s murder case, said the advocate.

Similarly, the AIADMK regime drafted the GO 64 to free the trio — A Neduchezhiyan, G Ravindran and C Muniyappan — in the Dharmapuri bus burning case. Three college students were burnt alive in the incident. They walked out of the Vellore Central prison on November 19, 2018.

“The GO was framed to ensure the release of the three,” said Pugalenthi. The same was attested to by a senior prison official.

Official sources pointed out that some prisoners, eligible for premature release but left out of the lists, with resources seek judicial intervention and secure their freedom.

“But many who cannot afford to engage lawyers depend on the mechanism in place. Many times the mechanism fails them and they continue to be in prison. This is why a clear-cut policy is the need of the hour,” an official source said.