The Kerala Prison Department is introducing stricter measures to prevent the misuse of telephone calls made by inmates. As part of the new measures, the department has decided to curb the practice of call forwarding, which was allegedly being misused by some inmates under the pretext of contacting their relatives from prison.
Under the new system, both inmates and their relatives will have to submit a consent form before the facility is approved. The application must include the inmate’s name, Aadhaar number, prison ID number and cell block number, along with the phone numbers of three relatives whom the inmate wishes to contact. The consent of the respective relatives will also be required.
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The relatives will also have to submit an affidavit confirming that the call-forwarding facility on their mobile phones has been completely deactivated and that they will personally receive calls from the inmate. Prison authorities will verify all three numbers by making calls to them before adding them to the restricted calling system.
The decision follows instances in which relatives were allegedly found forwarding calls received from prisons to other numbers. According to prison authorities, this enabled inmates to engage in fraudulent activities and other unauthorised communications.
Once call forwarding has been deactivated and the numbers have been verified, telecom service providers will not be permitted to reactivate the facility without specific permission from prison authorities. The move is aimed at ensuring that calls made by inmates reach only the approved relatives and preventing the telephone facility from being misused.
