Since the beginning of the current calendar year in March, 50 prisoners have been given electric shackles instead of prison terms in Tehran, said the manager of Tehran Province prisons on Saturday.
Last year only one prisoner had electric shackles, said Mostafa Mohebbi.
In the first four months of the year, some 257 inmates have been freed from prison with the help of an NGO, IRNA reported.
“During the period, we had 855 cases of freedom after forgiveness by plaintiffs, 625 prisoners were on parole, and 2,910 on leave in Tehran Province,” Mohebbi said.
He added that following negotiations with the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, it was agreed to provide the prisoners 10,000 books and about the same number of periodicals.
Tehran Province has nine prisons. Tasnim News Agency reported last year that 240,000 people are currently incarcerated in Iran, with some overcrowded prisons having no room for new arrivals. Iran’s judicial system has been criticized for its bloated bureaucracy and unusually large numbers of cases -- a whopping 15 million in a year. The judiciary recently encouraged judges to try and find alternatives to prison sentences to upend the trend.
