Why was Winston not afraid of being caught with Julia after he was released from Ministry of Love?

Question

These lines in chapter 3:

He had seen her; he had even spoken to her. There was no danger in it. He knew as though instinctively that they now took almost no interest in his doings.

How did he know? And why had they stopped scrutinizing him?

There was no telescreen, but there must be hidden microphones: besides, they could be seen. It did not matter, nothing mattered. They could have lain down on the ground and done that if they had wanted to.

Before being sent to the Ministry of Love, Winston and Julia had been afraid of being caught together. But later Winston is not afraid and it seems like the Party is not interested in them either. Why?

Answer 1

They have only released the two of them once they know they are broken and entirely loyal to the party and Big Brother. In theory Winston can do whatever he wants; in reality he is incapable of actually doing anything other against the interests of the Party.

The following line:

His flesh froze with horror at the thought of it.

Shows that he has moved from external control - rules imposed by others, followed (or given the appearance of being followed) for fear of the consequences, to internal control - the rules are internalised and he is now psychologically incapable of breaking them.

Answer 2

Once he screamed out for Julia to be tortured instead of him, they knew he was truly broken. He said earlier that he'd do anything, to anyone, to fight BB, except hurt Julia. After he screamed for her to be tortured they knew he didn't have any passion to fight for anything.