Sabarmati Central Jail to get phone facility for inmates

Additional DGP (Prisons) P C Thakur said,“It is for the first time in the state that the inmates of a jail will get to use phones officially. However,we have laid down strict rules. The facility will be available only for the ‘first-timers’ and not the hardcore criminals. The inmates can call up their family members and and their advocates twice a week.”

Three booths have been allotted to the undertrials — one for petty criminals,one for serious offenders and one for women prisoners.

“Until now,inmates used to write letters to their families and meet them occasionally in person. Now,they can regularly talk to their family members for the stipulated time,” Thakur said.

Prison authorities said telephone booths would be under monitored and call records would be maintained in prison’s registers.

The inmates facing trial under under TADA and POTA would not be allowed to use these phones.

The booths have been designed by National Institute of Design and sponsored by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.

Earlier,the state’s jail department had spent lakhs of rupees to install jammers in jails to block the use of cellphones by hardcore criminals,but with little effect.