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Open jail inmates can now video call their families

The facility has been made available in the open jails at Amravati and Nagpur where prisoners can make video calls using apps like WhatsApp to their relatives from handsets given to officials

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The inmates can call their relatives once in 15 days
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In a first, state prison inmates can now keep in touch with their families, thanks to the efforts of the state prison department. Inmates can make video calls to their families. There are plans to cover other such correctional establishments in subsequent phases.

"We have issued orders that it should start for open jails and women prisons… we will expand it to other facilities later," said Bhushankumar Upadhyaya, additional director general of police (prisons).

"At present, the facility has been made available in the open jails at Amravati and Nagpur where prisoners can make video calls using apps like WhatsApp to their relatives from handsets given to officials … it will also cover prisoners in women jails," said Yogesh Desai, Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Eastern Region, Nagpur.

He added that the phone numbers of relatives on which these inmates would call were verified by the local police. 

"They will be able to make phone calls once in 15 days. Earlier, they were allowed to make voice calls, and the facility has been enhanced to video calling," said Desai.

"The prisoners who are lodged in the open jails in Vidarbha are selected from correctional facilities across the state… this video calling facility will reduce the expenses of their relatives who have to travel to these prisons for long distances and give them the satisfaction of meeting their family members," he explained.

While convicts are allowed two visits from their relatives, they can make phone calls to their families once every fortnight. Undertrials can meet their relatives once a week.

"We are also allowing undertrials to make these video calls at an experimental level. However, convicts are given preference," said Desai.

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