Parole and Furlough

A man serving a long sentence in a Maharashtra jail loses his father. Can he go home for the last rites and be back in a week? Another prisoner, who has behaved well for years, is allowed a few weeks at home every so often to keep his family bond alive. The first is usually called parole, the second furlough. Neither ends the sentence, yet both let a prisoner out. What exactly are they, who decides, and what happens if he does not come back?

In two minutes

Parole is the temporary or conditional release of a prisoner during his sentence, granted by the executive under prison rules and subject to conditions and supervision; furlough is a related release, usually for periodic family contact and good conduct, and both differ from probation, which is a court’s alternative to sentence.

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