The Odisha prison department has proposed fitting GPS-enabled tracking devices to the ankles of undertrial prisoners facing non-heinous charges to decongest prisons and reduce the government’s expenditure on jail inmates.
Director general of prisons, Dr Manoj Chhabra said the prison department has sent proposals to the government for fitting of the tracking device, estimated to cost between ₹10,000 and ₹15,000, that would alert the police in case the undertrial prisoner tries to escape from a designated area.
“It would be tamper proof. We have proposed to the state government to introduce the technology through which we can keep non-violent undertrials involved in petty offences confined in their houses without sending them to jails. The government is still considering it,” said Dr Chhabra.
The prison department recently presented the ankle tracking system for undertrials before the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs.
Chhabra said the initiative would reduce prison overcrowding. The Supreme Court had earlier advised states not to arrest offenders for crimes carrying a maximum imprisonment of seven years. Approximately 65% of undertrials in Odisha’s jails are detained for offences punishable by up to seven years in prison. There are over 20,000 inmates in 87 jails of the state.
Human rights activists in Odisha, however, said the GPS tracking system would have enormous legal ramifications as the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Probation of Offenders Act lack provisions for the release of a prisoner on real-time monitoring. “The biggest problem is it violates the right to privacy of an undertrial which is a fundamental right. Once the undertrial is tracked using GPS his/her data is likely to be saved in a server. The Personal Data Protection Act does not cover the use of anonymised data or non-personal data and thus the use of such tracking device is problematic.
{{/usCountry}}Human rights activists in Odisha, however, said the GPS tracking system would have enormous legal ramifications as the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Probation of Offenders Act lack provisions for the release of a prisoner on real-time monitoring. “The biggest problem is it violates the right to privacy of an undertrial which is a fundamental right. Once the undertrial is tracked using GPS his/her data is likely to be saved in a server. The Personal Data Protection Act does not cover the use of anonymised data or non-personal data and thus the use of such tracking device is problematic.
{{/usCountry}}Besides such trackers have to be charged regularly for its battery to continue functioning and an undertrial who doesn’t want his movements to be supervised can easily let the battery run down without charging it. Like any other device, GPS trackers are vulnerable to technical glitches,” said human rights activist Biswapriya Kanungo.