For the prisoners in various jails in Bengal this is the best Puja gift they could have asked for. In a scheme started by the jail authorities, the prisoners will soon have access to telephone within the jail premises to call up their families and friends.

While the pilot project will start at the Dum Dum Central jail next week, it is expected to cover all the prisons in the state soon.

“We have seen that the prisoners had a tendency to smuggle in mobile phones. Nearly 99 per cent of the prisoners used them to call their family members. Moreover, the right to communication with the families is a right that has been provided by the West Bengal Correctional Services Act,” said BD Sharma, Inspector General, Prison.

To start the project, every prisoner will be given an id number and a password and he would have to provide three phone numbers to the jail authorities. The numbers will then be fed into their data banks and the prisoner will be allowed to call only those three numbers.

“Each call will be of five minute duration, after which it will get disconnected and prisoners will be allowed to make calls only twice a week. The system is such that if the prisoner tries any any number other than the ones he has provided in the data bank, the phone will not get connected,” said Sharma.

Prison authorities are hoping that the introduction of SIM-less phone within the premises will make it easier for the inmates to keep in touch with their families and bring some transparency in the system.

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