The Supreme Court has held in a judgment that a stereotypical approach by the government to premature release of convicts by relying entirely on the reports of the trial judges or the police will frustrate the goal of reforming prisoners.
A Bench headed by Justice S. Ravindra Bhat said the “ultimate goal of imprisonment, even in the most serious crime, is reformative”.
“If a stereotypical approach in denying the benefit of remission, which ultimately results in premature release, is repeatedly adopted, the entire idea of limiting incarceration for long periods (sometimes spanning a third or more of a convict’s lifetime and in others, result in an indefinite sentence), would be defeated. This could result in a sense of despair and frustration among inmates, who might consider themselves reformed– but continue to be condemned in prison,”Justice Bhat observed in the recent verdict.
