HYDERABAD, Jan23, 2012: As part of prison reforms, the Andhra Pradesh government has come up with a plan to allow the prisoners of a central jail here to make telephone calls to their family members.
The new experiment will be implemented on a pilot basis at Cherlapally Central Prison. The Prisons Department is planning to install a biometric telephone system inside the prison to enable the inmates to utilise the paid facility. “They will be allowed to call their family members twice a week or eight times in a month but not at one go. They can speak for five minutes at a time and the call charges will be Rs5 per minute in the initial stage,” Director General of Police (Prisons) C N Gopinath Reddy said. The facility is expected to come up within a week. If the experiment is successful, then it would be extended to other major prisons in the state, the DGP said. The illegal use of mobile phones by prisoners has been one of the major challenges being faced by jail officials. The installation of biometric telephone system and adoption of a more liberal approach towards the genuine needs of the inmates could help curb the menace of illegal use, the officials said. The phone numbers of family members of the prisoners will be registered in advance and every call would be monitored by the jail authorities. “Initially, to cover the cost of the biometric system, the inmates will be charged Rs5 per minute. The charges will come down after six months,” the Superintendent of Cherlapally prison K C Srinivasa Rao said. The facility would be available for both convicts and under-trials. On an average, the prisoners earn a daily income ranging from Rs30 to Rs50 by carrying out their assigned works. They will be given tokens in the denominations of Rs5, Rs10 and Rs20 which they can use to make the phone calls. Cherlapally, the largest prison in the state, has about 3,000 inmates.
The new experiment will be implemented on a pilot basis at Cherlapally Central Prison. The Prisons Department is planning to install a biometric telephone system inside the prison to enable the inmates to utilise the paid facility. “They will be allowed to call their family members twice a week or eight times in a month but not at one go. They can speak for five minutes at a time and the call charges will be Rs5 per minute in the initial stage,” Director General of Police (Prisons) C N Gopinath Reddy said. The facility is expected to come up within a week. If the experiment is successful, then it would be extended to other major prisons in the state, the DGP said. The illegal use of mobile phones by prisoners has been one of the major challenges being faced by jail officials. The installation of biometric telephone system and adoption of a more liberal approach towards the genuine needs of the inmates could help curb the menace of illegal use, the officials said. The phone numbers of family members of the prisoners will be registered in advance and every call would be monitored by the jail authorities. “Initially, to cover the cost of the biometric system, the inmates will be charged Rs5 per minute. The charges will come down after six months,” the Superintendent of Cherlapally prison K C Srinivasa Rao said. The facility would be available for both convicts and under-trials. On an average, the prisoners earn a daily income ranging from Rs30 to Rs50 by carrying out their assigned works. They will be given tokens in the denominations of Rs5, Rs10 and Rs20 which they can use to make the phone calls. Cherlapally, the largest prison in the state, has about 3,000 inmates.