Central support to Poor Prisoners

Context

The government has allotted ₹20 crore each year to assist people in jail who are poor and unable to pay their way out of jail.

Details about the Scheme

• The Centre launched “Support to Poor Prisoners Scheme” last year and the focus of their move was to reach vulnerable sections or marginalised individuals.
• The Ministry has directed the heads of prisons to utilise the finance to help poor prisoners who are unable to pay fines or secure bail because of economic inadequacies.
• They say that the undertrial prisoner is entitled to a maximum of 40000/- and that of a convicted prisoner is a maximum of 25000/-, and incidents of higher assistance approved by state-level committees is common.
• At district and HQ level committees will be set up to gather details of eligible prisoners and the National Crime Records Bureau will coordinate the execution of the project.
• The funding mechanism will involve direct disbursement to courts to pay for fines or surety for bail
• This centrally funded scheme seeks to provide a financial backing to the economically disadvantaged prisoners in order to obtain their release from prison.

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)

• The establishment of the NCRB was recommended by The National Police Commission – 1977 and in 1985, the Ministry of Home Affairs set up the Task Force to examine its establishment.
• The Task Force’s suggestions were approved by the government, and the NCRB was created in New Delhi in January 1986.

Important Functions of NCRB

• The Bureau of National Crime Records (NCRB) is an information centre, which contains data on crimes and criminals both nationally and internationally.
• Its key objectives include helping the law enforcers to trace the criminals behind crimes, store and share information on inter-state and international criminals, collect and analyse crime statistics that can be used by the office for crime prevention and rehabilitation purposes.
• In addition, NCRB links and assists the State Crime Records Bureaus, and lays down computer systems for the Central Police Organisations.
• The existing NCRB office is now a part of the Ministry of Home Affairs which is a result of the merger of a number of crime records establishments including the Directorate of Coordination Police Computers, the Central Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Police Research and Development.
• The NCRB has branches including CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems), Central Finger Print Bureau, the Statistical Branch, the Training Branch, the Data Centre, and the Technical Branch.

Conclusion

The ‘Support to Poor Prisoners Scheme’ is one of the significant initiatives that will help to make justice a right for economically poor prisoners. This scheme that is budgeted for every year ( ₹20 crore) will financially assist the poor and underprivileged people who cannot afford fines or bail, thus encouraging inclusion and treating the justice system fairly.

Source: The Hindu

UPSC Prelims Practice Question:

Q.Consider the following Statement:

1. Regular Bail is granted to the person who has been arrested or is in police custody.
2. Interim Bail is a long-term bail.
3. A person can apply for anticipatory bail when he/she finds out that he could be arrested for a non-bailable offence.

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

a. 1 and 2 only

b. 2 and 3 only

c. 1 and 3 only

c. 1, 2 and 3

Ans: “c”

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