New Delhi: Convicted for a crime? That`s not
the end of the world for you. You can still go to office like
others, work 10 to 5, earn, spend time with your family, get
annual leave and come back to jail to serve your sentence!
The idea may sound Utopian but then a Delhi court has
asked the government to consider such a model prisoner
reformative system to de-congest jails and adopt a lenient
view towards convicts who do not exhibit violent tendency.
The court said such a system was in fact working
successfully at Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh, which could be
adopted in a modified manner by the Delhi government.
"I am hopeful that the issue (of open jails) being high
on the government agenda, the available options would be
considered by NCT of Delhi at the earliest so as to enable the
courts to explore alternatives of suspended/ deferred/ limited
imprisonment/ incarceration and of imprisonment in open
prisons/ correctional institutions in appropriate cases,"
Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau said in a judgement.
The court passed the judgement while pronouncing its
sentence in the case of four youth convicted for inflicting
injuries on their neighbours at Uttam Nagar area here in 2006.
The judge referred to the "open prisoon" at Bilaspur,
set up in 1960, where even murder convicts are permitted to
re-integrate with the society by permitting them to work in
offices, set up business or carry out other occupation.
PTI
