LAHORE, Sept 16: Recognising the prisoner’s need to communicate with the outer world and to check the illegal means they use, mostly with the connivance of jail officials, to fulfill it, the Punjab prisons department has decided to provide controlled phone facility to the inmates, beginning with three jails through a pilot project.

The pilot project, which is expected to be launched in central jails of Vehari and Bahawalpur and Faisalabad Borstal during the ongoing month, if proved successful, will be gradually extended to all the 32 prisons in Punjab, which is the first province to introduce the facility for prisoners.

A senior prisons official told Dawn requesting anonymity that the need to install phones inside prisons was strongly felt after authorities seized no less than 2,500 cell phones, besides a good quantity of narcotics, from different jails in the province during the last six months in surprise raids.

He said at least 70 jail officials were handed down various punishments in connection with seizures of cell phones and narcotics and prisoners who were caught red-handed with the banned items were either issued warnings or shifted to other jails in an attempt to break their networks.

Around 20 inmates had so far been shifted to other jails after they committed violations of the ban even after receiving at least two warnings in this regard, he added.

The official said it was found that around 90 per cent of the inmates would illegally use cell phones while being in jail and bribe jail officials for the favour. However, he said, it could not be ascertained that how many of these inmates used the cell phones for criminal purposes. Under the pilot project, the official said, each inmate would be allowed to make a 15-minute call twice a month and the phone numbers they would dial would be listed for legal and security purposes.

He said these call centres would work through a specially developed software and that wireless PTCL sets were being installed at the three jails chosen for the project.

The official said a letter had been written to the federal interior ministry to involve intelligence agencies for either installation of jammers or some other devices inside jails to check illegal cell phone communication by inmates. The move was also aimed at restricting terrorism-related communication.

Inspector General of Punjab Prisons Mian Farooq Nazeer, confirming that the pilot project was being launched, said it was aimed at restricting illegal cell phone communication, eliminating corruption of jail officials and reducing number of visitors to the prisons. He said more than one PTCL connections were being acquired for each call centre and authorities concerned had been asked to also provide data of all the numbers to be dialed by the inmates within the city where the jails were located in the monthly bills with call timings. It would help check misuse of the facility, the IG added.