Liberal phone call facility for jail inmates
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 1
To curb the illegal use of mobile phones by jail inmates, the Jails Department has installed more landline connections in prisons and increased the talk time limit by five times.
‘Humane approach’
The landline phone booths have been installed ward wise. One ward covers a cluster of barracks or a walled block within a prison. Patiala Central Jail, for instance, has installed 10 landline phone booths for as many wards.
Till now, a jail had just one landline connection and an inmate was given two minutes a day for talking on the phone. An inmate is allowed to call up to 10 persons. It was impossible for them to have a meaningful conversation with members of family or lawyers in two minutes. Moreover, inmates fought often because of just one phone booth.
Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said, “Regular inspections are one way of checking the illegal use of mobile phones. Every day, jail officials seize mobile phones from inmates. But it has thrown up mixed results. The other option is to have a humane and practical approach to the problem. By going liberal, the department may combat the illegal use of mobile phones. With more talk time and phone connections, inmates will not risk using mobile phones illegally.”
Regular inspections are one way of checking the illegal use of mobile phones. But it has thrown up mixed results. The other option is to have a humane approach to the problem. By going liberal, the department may combat the illegal use of mobile phones.
After consulting the matter with ADGP (Jails) PK Sinha, the minister recently ordered more phone sets for jails and increased talk time. “Ten minutes per day is good enough for inmates, especially because there are more phone booths now,” Randhawa said.
The landline phone booths have been installed ward wise. One ward covers a cluster of barracks or a walled block within a prison. Patiala Central Jail, for instance, has installed 10 landline phone booths for as many wards. Earlier, there was only one phone booth for the entire jail that has more than 2,000 inmates.
Officials said the increased talk time would not be a burden on the state exchequer. “The inmates make calls through an e-card, which they buy from the jail canteen. Thus, they pay for the calls and there is no burden on the exchequer,” an official said.
The move may also help jails in the state to score better on human rights index. A 2018 report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) brought out that the number of suicides and jailbreak incidents were the highest in Punjab prisons.
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