Ministers said no one except the superintendent was allowed to carry cell phones in prisons. "If an officer is found in jail with a cell phone, the first thing we would do is suspend him."
The installation of 5G jammers, full-body scanners and other sniffer dogs outside the prisons is the plan that the new prison minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has drawn up for a reform of the department.
The minister, who has firsthand experience of phone phone threats in prisons, told a press conference on one of an inmate's congratulatory phone calls on Tuesday: "5G cell phone jammer will soon be appearing in central state prisons. A proposal has been sent to the Union Ministry of Interior. "
“Now we only have jammers for 2G and 3G signals. If we install 4G jammers today after a huge effort, it will be out of date by the time 5G comes in. So we're trying to install 5G jammers, ”Randhawa said after a meeting with prison officials.
Incidentally, the government's official press release in the evening spoke of the installation of 4G jammers. “We have three detection dogs in the prison section. We plan to add seven more to check drug and cell phone use in prison complexes, ”the minister added.
Only supdt can transport telephones in prisons
The minister added that no one except the superintendent was allowed to carry cell phones in prisons. "If an officer with cell phones is found in prisons, the first thing we would suspend him," Randhawa said, adding that over 1,500 cell phones were recovered from prisons in 2017.
“To prevent this from happening, the additional chief secretary will instruct the district police chiefs to investigate mobile recovery cases. All prison workers involved will be severely punished, ”he said.
Suchen Find permanent documents ’
The minister added that 651 inmates were found to be HIV positive and said the department would improve health facilities in prisons. “We are also planning to introduce health insurance for inmates. I will also ask that doctors be permanently deputed to prisons. The health department only sends its doctors to deputation for six months, ”he added.
He said the prisons were almost full with 22,375 inmates versus the 23,218 capacity. There are 1,119 women and 132 foreigners. Around 40% of inmates who were fined were booked in cases related to the NDSP law. Around 60% of prison inmates (13,000) are under-tried.
