Journalism of Courage
Paid phone facility would now be offered to prisoners facing trial in jails of the state, Additional Inspector General of Police (Prisons) Meeran Borwankar said here Monday. The decision comes against the backdrop of the seizure of over 40 cellphones from prisoners at the Nagpur central jail.
Borwankar said prisoners facing trial and lodged in jails in Maharashtra would get paid phone facility. She said over 100 cell phones from various jails across Maharashtra had been recovered in the past one year and the prison department had taken this matter very seriously.
Borwankar was speaking to reporters after after the convocation ceremony of the 58th batch of jail officers who graduated from Daulatrao Jadhav Jail Officer Training College in Yerawada.
[related-post]
Nagpur central jail has been in news for the past one week after five inmates escaped from the jail after scaling the wall and the jail administration ina search carried out after the jailbreak recovered over 40 cell phones from inmates. Ten staffers of the Nagpur central jail including the jail superintendent have been placed under suspension.
Three months ago, the jail department started the facility of paid phones for the convicts who are allowed to make a call to the family twice a month. “The proposal to extend this facility to the undertrial inmates too is under consideration,” said Borwankar.
Yerawada Jail Superintendent Yogesh Desai said, “There is proposal of a biometric system for the phone facility. Every inmate will use this biometric identity at the time of using the phone. The call will be recorded and detailed record of the calls made will also be kept. Once this facility is introduced, we can extend the existing facility to the undertrial inmates also.”
Borwankar added that almost all the all central prisons and most district prisons now had cell phone jammers and that door frame metal detectors had been installed. Baggage scanning system would also be introduced soon, she said.
Desai said the over 100 closed circuit television cameras had been installed inside Yerawada jail and entire system would be activated soon.
Divisional Commissioner S Chokhalingam was the chief guest at the convocation ceremony. The best performing trainees from the outgoing batch Praveen Vibhandik, Sherkhan Pathan and Himayat Tamboli were felicitated on the occasion.
