The terms “Bail” , “Parole” and “Probation” are often confused with one another. While they are similar in a context that a defendant’s past criminal history and conduct are considered. All are completely separate processes that take place at different times of a criminal case.
Let us take a look at these terms!
Bail
- After a person has been arrested for a crime and has gone through the booking process, he will appear before a judge who will decide whether or not to allow the defendant to pay bail, a specified amount of money, in order to be released from jail.
- To determine whether or not to offer the ability to post bail and how much should be paid, the court looks at many aspects including the nature of the crime, the defendant’s criminal record, and various indicators of risk of flight.
- By putting up money, the defendant has an incentive to return for all court appearances or else he will forfeit his bail money to the court.
- Because it is meant to be an incentive, bail is usually set quite high and for many, it is not affordable, which is where, for a fee, a bail bond agent can help. The agent will make an agreement with the court that the defendant will appear at all scheduled court proceedings and in return, the defendant will put something up for collateral, which can be anything of value such as real estate, jewelry, automobiles, etc., that could be sold to pay the court the full amount of bail if the defendant fails to appear in court, or “skips”.
- A defendant’s friends or family members can also offer to put up collateral but should do so indiscriminately. Whoever posts bail on behalf of the defendant loses their collateral if the defendant skips.
In short- Bail is a kind of Security which is given by the accused to the court that he will attend all the proceedings made upon him and include personal bond and bail bond.
The term bail is not defined under CrPC.
Section 2(a), S.436 to S.450 of CrPC deals with bailable and non-bailable offence , terms and conditions.
Section 2(a) of CrPC. defines– ” bailable offence” means an offence which is shown as bailable in the First Schedule, or which is made bailable by any other law for the time being in force; and “non- bailable offence” means any other offence;
Parole
- Parole takes place at the other end of the legal process after a defendant has been convicted of a crime.
- Parole is when a prisoner is released from jail early for good behavior. A judge can decide at sentencing that due to the defendant’s past, the nature of the crime, or if the defendant hadn’t posted bail and had already spent time in jail, that the defendant is released on parole for a specified amount of time.
- If a defendant does not receive parole at sentencing, he may be offered parole eligibility after a predetermined amount of time served. Once that time has been served, he will appear before the parole board.
- The parole board, instead of a judge, will decide whether or not to release the defendant. They will consider the nature of the crime, the impact of the crime, the conduct of the inmate during incarceration, and his possible threat to society if he were to be released.
- Victims and/or family members of the victims of the crime are usually allowed to makes statements at these hearings as well.
- If the board decides against parole, the inmate returns to prison until he is up for parole again. If the board grants parole, the defendant can go home.
- This process doesn’t end there, however. While on parole, which comes with a specified time-frame, the parolee( the person who gets parole) must meet with a parole officer on a regular basis. If a parole meeting is missed, the parolee may be returned to prison to serve out the remaining time of his sentence.
- There are usually other stipulations as well, such as passing drug tests, not associating with criminals, and not committing any new crimes. Once the time on parole is finished, providing all rules were followed, the person is released from its restrictions.
- The Prisons Act of 1894 being Act No. 9 of 1894 has defined the parole system under 5(B).
- There are two major types of parole –1. Custody and 2. Regular
Probation
- The term Probation is derived from the Latin word probare, which means to test or to prove.
- Probation means a time period before a person is actually sent to the prison.
- Parole can also be described as early release from prison conditionally, served in the community and must also follow to specific conditions.
- Probation is reported to a Probation officer. Probation mostly is given to first-time offenders and nonviolent crimes.
- Probation can be revoked by Judge.
- Section 562 of the CrPC, 1898, was the earliest provision to have dealt with probation.
- After amendment in 1973 it stands as S.360 of CrPC, 1973.
- S.361 makes it mandatory for the judge to declare the reasons for not awarding the benefit of probation.
Fact-The CrPC was created for the first time ever in 1882 and then amended in 1898, then according to the 41st Law Commission report in 1973.
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