On Thursday, the Maharashtra home department issued a notice instructing the authorities at Yerwada Central Prison to replace the coin-operated payphones with smartcard-based telephones. Payphones have been installed on the premises of the prisons in Maharashtra for the convenience of inmates under prescribed criteria.
According to the recent Government Resolution (GR), inmates held in high-security areas of the jail or those in isolation must be escorted by prison authorities to access these machines, posing a potential risk to internal security. Officials from the State Department of Prisons and Correctional Services in Pune said many of these coinbox phones are due for repair and new units are not easily available in the market. The superintendents of several prisons have suggested simple cell phones be allotted to prisons for use by the inmates.
The state prison department recently received a proposal from the Allen Group in Tamil Nadu to install card-based phones in Maharashtra jails. Following a thorough investigation, the state home department has approved the installation of smartcard-based phones for inmates at Yerawada Central Prison.