As per the suggestions of the Supreme Court, the Andhra Pradesh prison department has begun releasing prisoners on emergency parole and interim bail, to decongest prisons to tackle the spread of COVID-19 in the state.
On Wednesday evening, 74 prisoners were released from the Visakhapatnam Central Jail. Out of them, 53 were remand prisoners while 21 were convicted prisoners, authorities said. They hail from the districts of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam.
Superintendent of Visakhapatnam Central Jail S. Rahul told a media outlet, "We are coordinating with police personnel and their family members to come and take them home."
He also said that sanitation measures have been stepped up and precautions were being taken inside the premises of the prison.
"All prisoners are being given masks. We are ensuring that they are maintaining distance and all areas from the main gate to the barracks are being thoroughly sanitised. Our staff has also been given masks and we are doing a thermal scan of all those who enter the premises to check their temperature," he said.
"We have an isolation ward inside the jail. There have been no cases so far, but we have our resident doctor who is keeping a close watch," he added.
Other jails across the state also began releasing prisoners, mainly those who were lodged for petty cases.
This included 30 prisoners from the Kadapa central prison, 3 prisoners in Nellore and 73 from East Godavari and West Godavari districts, who were released over the past three days, reports stated.
Last month, the Supreme Court directed all states and Union Territories to constitute high-level panels to determine prisoners who could be released on parole for four to six weeks to prevent overcrowding in jails to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.
A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and Surya Kant asked the state governments and UT authorities to release on parole or bail those convicted or charged with offences entailing jail terms of up to seven years.
On March 16, the top court had observed that prison staff enter the prisons regularly, and so do visitors and lawyers. Therefore, such movement of people will lead to high risk of transmission of coronavirus to prison inmates.
The court had taken suo motu cognizance of the steps taken to prevent prisoners from coronavirus outbreak in the backdrop of overcrowded prisons in the country.
PTI inputs