Cherlapally prisoners to get biometric telephone

HYDERABAD: The Cherlapally prison has often been noted for the rampant and illegal use of mobile phones by the inmates. Hoping to put a check to it, the prison authorities is installing a biometric telephone system which the inmates can use for a charge. The Vodafone telecommunication company will be installing the phone is a couple of weeks and will charge Rs 25 per five-minute call. "There will no one-minute call," said KC Srinivasa Rao, superintendent of Cherlapally Central Prison. He said that the inmates can call their family members twice a week, that is eight times in a month, but not at one go. The call rates would come down after the first six months, Rao said. Initially Vodafone is charging Rs 25 in order to cover the cost of the installation of biometric system, he explained.But from where will the prisoners get the money to make calls? The prisoners are not allowed to have money beyond what they earn by doing jobs in jail. Their income ranges from Rs 30 to Rs 50 a day. This also is not in real currency."There is no currency circulation within the prison. Inmates are given money tokens in the denominations of Rs 5, Rs 10 and Rs 20 and they use them at the canteen and telephone booth in the prison premises," said Srinivas Rao.With the installation, Cherlapally prison would be the first prison in the state to allow telecommunication facility for inmates through a biometric phone system. This one telephone will serve the needs of roughly 2,000 prisoners, both undertrials and convicts.According to the rules, the phone numbers of the inmates's family and relatives will be registered with the jail authorities in advance. All the calls through the system will be monitored by them. The authorities hope the fact that the system is biometric would prevent its illegal use by the inmates.