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Criminology · Unit 4

Correction of Offenders, Probation, Parole and Victimology

Unit 4 of Criminology and Penology (syllabus: Module IV — the need for reformation and the efficacy of imprisonment; the Prisons Act 1894; probation, its history and the Probation of Offenders Act 1958, distinguished from a suspended sentence; parole and furlough; and victimology — its scope, its history, and the victim in the Indian criminal justice system). Below: what the unit covers, the provisions it turns on, and the cases an examiner expects you to name.

What this unit covers

  • What is the declared object of the Indian penal system, and what supports it?
  • What does the Prisons Act 1894 provide about separation, labour and prison punishments?
  • What are the nine problems of the Indian prison system?
  • Is imprisonment efficacious, and what are the substitutes?
  • When may an offender be released on probation, and how does the Act differ from section 360 of the Code?
  • What is parole, and how is it distinguished from probation?
  • What is victimology, who is a victim, and what are the field's three aims?
  • What are the two Indian routes to compensation for a victim, and why must they be kept apart?
  • What is parole, when may it begin, and what does it do to the prisoner's status?
  • How is parole distinguished from furlough, and what turns on the distinction?
  • What happens when a parolee violates the conditions of his release?
  • What are the problems of the released offender, and what is the community's part in them?
  • What are the programmes of the modern prison, and what makes any of them work?
  • Must a prisoner be paid for prison labour, and on what principle?
  • What are the objectives of releasing a prisoner on parole and furlough under the Model Prison Manual 2016?
  • Who may be released on parole or furlough under the Model Prison Manual 2016, for how long, and by whom?
  • What is the procedure for granting parole or furlough, and what conditions attach to the release?
  • What follows on breach of the conditions of parole or furlough?

Treat that list as a self-test: recite each topic's rule from memory before you open its cases.

Provisions

Leading cases

  • The public interest litigation concerning the juvenile ward of a Central Jail
  • Rama Murthy v State of Karnataka
  • Dalbir Singh
  • The direction releasing three convicted juvenile prisoners on parole for one month
  • Benjamin Mendelsohn
  • Rudul Shah v State of Bihar
  • Dharamvir v State of Uttar Pradesh
  • State of Maharashtra v Suresh Pandurang Darvekar
  • Not a case: the statutory provision is section 48-A of the Prisons Act 1894
  • Not a case: the after-care record from the Indian Jail Conference of 1877 to the after-care Homes of 1955 to 1960
  • Not a case: the 1957 policy guidelines and the Jail Reforms Committee headed by Justice A. N. Mulla
  • State of Gujarat v High Court of Gujarat
  • No leading case states these objectives; the nearest authority is the instrument itself
  • No case fixes these periods; the nearest authority is Chapter XIX of the Model Prison Manual 2016 read with the rule-making power in section 59 of the Prisons Act 1894
  • No case lays down this procedure; the nearest authority is Chapter XIX of the Model Prison Manual 2016. On the surety condition the Bombay Furlough and Parole Rules 1959 were applied in State of Maharashtra v Suresh Pandurang Darvekar
  • No leading case is needed for the statutory rule

Full case summaries

Exam questions on this unit

In this paper