Covid-19: Uttarakhand to release 835 prisoners to decongest jails amid pandemic

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Uttarakhand government will release 835 prisoners including 215 convicts on parole and 620 undertrials on bail from 11 jails in the state to check the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, officials said on Tuesday.

The development comes a few days after the Supreme Court ordered all the states and Union Territories to decongest their jails in an attempt to contain the coronavirus pandemic by releasing the convicts who have been sentenced for less than seven years and undertrials who face a maximum sentence of seven years.

“We have decided to release 215 convicts on parole for six months and 620 undertrials on bail following the order of the Supreme Court,” said PVK Prasad, Inspector General of Police (Jail), Uttarakhand.

Prasad said the jail administration has informed the respective district administrations and police departments who will make the arrangements to “take the released inmates to their home.”

Uttarakhand has 11 jails with a capacity of 3,420 but they are overcrowded with 5,000 inmates.

The officer also said that a slew of measures have been implemented in all the 11 jails to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Uttarakhand has reported seven positive cases of coronavirus so far. Two of them have recovered.

“All the jail staff and inmates are maintaining social distance inside the jails. Also, jail premises are being cleaned every six hours to ensure cleanliness with the staffers working with masks and gloves,” said Prasad.

Among the other measures, jail administration has also prohibited the meetings of inmates with the family members till April 30.

“We have also set up two quarantine wards, including one in the jail and other in the doctor’s room. If any inmate develops any symptoms of the deadly virus then he or she would be quarantined there only. We are also quarantining any inmate who is coming to jail for 15 days before allowing him to go among the other inmates lodged inside,” said Prasad, adding, “So far there has been no infectionin jail.”.