Aftercare services to the release prisoner demonstrate need of fulltime work with or in police station. Previous criminal record is one of the main obstacles in reformation of release prisoner. Social workers counsel prisoner since his first interaction in prison. We engage financial and other resources for release and aftercare services. Sudden action from police only based on his previous criminal record washed out all our efforts. Therefore we interact with concern police for reformation & rehabilitation of release prisoners. It is strongly required in the cases of habitual offenders & history sheeters. Police Department has prejudice about the reformation & rehabilitation of the persons punished for offences like theft or robbery.

Some individual officers are found to be more cooperative, & open for the reformation on case-by-case basis. De-addiction from alcohol, restriction on bad company, & legal means of income generation are the remedies we have observed while working with habitual offenders. There are cases, which are recognized by police as reformed individuals.

There is need of detailed work with police on issue related to release prisoners, particularly habitual offenders. In future we will strengthen our work with release prisoners in regards to police. One reason for our considerable less interaction with police could be less numbers of habitual offenders in our aftercare program.

A large number of under-trials are arrested under chapter cases. They are booked under various sections of Criminal Procedure Code as preventive action. Some are arrested under sections of the Bombay Police Act on the grounds of law and order. Some of them are arrested because of their previous criminal background. And some are first timers who are arrested loitering around at night or found at the bus stands, railway station etc. The second group is not involved in any criminal activity, but has been arrested due to addiction to alcohol or bad company. Many are arrested due to disputes in the family. These are mostly young boys aged between 21-25 years who have a disturbed family background due to which they get into bad company through their long hours of absence from home. These are boys addicted to alcohol or drugs and are habitual of constantly being arrested under the same sections. This is similar with the group of youth aged 25-35 years who have been arrested under ‘chapter cases’ for domestic violence or other family disturbance cases.

Social workers do regular counseling of the prisoners during their stay in the prison. Home-visits are made to find out details about the case and opinion of people about the prisoner. If there is any chance of reformation then the workers mobilize resources through the family for his release. There are cases who are seem to be innocent and to prevent further criminalization of such first-time offenders while in prison, we try to get him out as early as possible. After paying visits the workers interact with the Special Executive Magistrate (ACP) or Executive Magistrate and presents the case and requests before the concerned court for release of the prisoner on personal bond. Power of the court is vested with Assistant Commissioner of Police in jurisdiction of the Police Commissionerate. The same power is vested with Executive Magistrate (Tehsildar) at the taluka of the rural division. We also provide aftercare services to the released undertrials in terms of counseling, training and guidance. This activity provides them the opportunity to reform themselves & reintegrate in the society.