Considering the substantial downward trend in cases of COVID in Punjab, the high powered committee, constituted by the Supreme Court, for dealing with COVID in prisons, has decided not to extend the parole of prisoners any further.
The Committee, headed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge Justice Ajay Tewari, with the state Principal Secretary (Jails) DK Tiwari and ADGP (Prisons) PK Sinha as members, recommended that all the prisoners surrender back to the prisons, which have been designated specifically for quarantining the returnees before testing and transferring them to their respective prisons.
“The whole process shall be done in a phased manner from February 17 onwards, for which ‘first out-first in’ mechanism shall be followed, that is the prisoners who have availed the longest period of parole would report back to the prisons first,” said a spokesperson of the Jail Department on Sunday.
Pointing out further, the spokesperson said that a schedule for the return of approximately 650-700 prisoners in one batch every nine to 10 days has been circulated to all the concerned authorities. “All the parolees are required to report at the designated jails — Barnala or Pathankot for male and Malerkotla for female — with a negative COVID test report (RT-PCR only) received within three days preceding the surrender,” said the spokesperson adding that they shall be quarantined in the jail for four days (including the day of surrender), and COVID sample collected on fifth day, subsequent to which, they shall be transferred to their respective prisons.
“If any prisoner tests positive in the pre-admission test, he or she shall inform the Superintendent of the designated prison at the earliest possible, and shall report on the 18th day from the date of result,” said the spokesperson.
Divulging further, the spokesperson said that as the return is planned in a phased manner, parole of all the prisoners released on parole in 2020 and presently out on parole shall stand extended till the date on which they have been asked to surrender at the respective designated jails created for this purpose.
The prisoners, above 60 years in age and those with chronic comorbidities, shall be taken back in the last batch of parole returnees, said the spokesperson.
However, this schedule shall not apply to prisoners released on parole in the year 2021, who shall return to the respective Special Jails, as and when their parole period expires, said the spokesperson.