SC: Why keep inmates entitled to remission of sentence in jails?

About the news:

Recently, a Supreme Court bench comprising the Chief Justice of India expressed disappointment over the efforts of legal services authorities (LSA’s), both at the national and state level. The bench mentioned, “Legal services authorities aren’t educating the inmates about their right to get remission”.

About Prison Status in India:

There are 1,350 prisons in the country consisting of 617 Sub-Jails, etc. The prisons have the capacity to lodge 4,03,739 prisoners, but there are actually 4,78,600 of them at the end of December 2019. Among them, 4,58,687 were male and 19,913 were female.

Other key observations by the Supreme Court:

• The bench mentioned that the LSA failed to educate the inmates about their eligibility for remission and the procedure for making applications seeking remission of sentences, after undergoing a requisite period of incarceration.
• The additional solicitor general informed that “All jails in Delhi have installed e-kiosks that would display details of the period of incarceration, the offence for which a person was convicted, and the furloughs availed by a convict when he opens the e-kiosk through a biometric access mechanism.
  • But the CJI appeared dissatisfied with the lackadaisical approach of authorities in facilitating a convict to exercise his right to remission.

How Supreme Court is reducing overcrowding in prisons during the pandemic?

During the Covid pandemic, the SC had ordered the release of prisoners/undertrials facing imprisonment for petty offences to prevent the spread of Covid in overcrowded prisons.

Recently, the Supreme Court also asked all states to furnish within a week details of the norms employed for releasing prisoners accused of minor offences from overcrowded jails