Nepal is contemplating a legal provision to allow certain convicted individuals to serve their prison terms under electronic surveillance instead of in correctional facilities. The Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs has drafted a bill that would introduce electronically monitored home detention in Nepal’s criminal justice system. This model, already in use in various countries, aims to alleviate prison overcrowding and enable low-risk offenders to complete their sentences outside traditional prisons while being supervised.
The proposed amendment to the Criminal Offences (Sentencing and Execution) Act, 2017, empowers the court to order offenders to serve their term with an electronic monitoring device. Under this provision, offenders may be required to wear or carry the monitoring device throughout their imprisonment. The offenders would bear the costs associated with the device’s installation and operation, and failure to do so could result in serving the sentence in prison.
Courts would be mandated to establish specific boundaries and terms for offenders under electronic surveillance, considering factors like age, physical and mental health, and past behavior. Violating these set limits could lead to an additional one-year prison term on top of the original sentence. The implementation of this system is anticipated to alleviate the strain on Nepal’s overcrowded prison facilities.
Chomendra Neupane, spokesperson for the Department of Prison Management under the Ministry of Home Affairs, highlighted the severe overcrowding in urban prisons, with some facilities accommodating inmates at nearly double their capacity. Neupane noted that prisons in major cities are operating at full capacity, with very few vacancies, as per the department’s data. Currently, Nepal has 27,643 prisoners across 75 correctional facilities, with a majority being male.
