The Yogi Adityanath government has instructed the Prison department to compile a list of undertrial prisoners lodged in Uttar Pradesh prisons for seven years who have exhibited good behaviour and have confessed to their crimes.
In order to reduce the number of undertrial prisoners to a minimum, officials from the Prison department have been given instructions to provide a list of prisoners with less than seven-year sentences in each jail. They also have been asked to offer suggestions. The files of prisoners who meet the criteria for mercy have been summoned to the headquarters.
According to DIG (Prisons) AK Singh, a report has been sought on the obstacles faced by undertrial inmates serving sentences of less than seven years who have pleaded for mercy in all state prisons. The government has given instructions for appropriate perusal of such pending cases to secure release of such prisoners, he added.
Singh said the department was preparing a list of undertrial prisoners lodged in 62 jails and Bandi Nari Niketan in the state who had exhibited good conduct and had appealed for mercy while confessing their crimes.
According to the DIG (Prisons), the department is also compiling a list of prisoners who have not been visited by a relative in the past 12 months.
A list of trade-wise trained prisoners has also been sought from the superintendents of all jails in the state. According to the official, all the prisoners lodged in jails are not professional criminals, therefore it is important to treat them with humanity so that they may come out with good thinking and skills and re-join the mainstream of society.
The official said that the superintendents of all the jails of the state had been instructed to make arrangements for blankets and bonfires etc. for the prisoners in view of the cold wave with the help of social organisations and district administration.
“We have also been given instructions from the government level to ensure arrangement of nutritious food in jails, as well as the inmates' meetings with their families. All instructions from the headquarters have been sent to the superintendents of all jails in the state,” he said.