Bhondsi Jail starts video conferencing facility for inmates

The Haryana prison department has started a video conferencing facility for Bhondsi jail inmates to help connect with their family members, said officials

The Haryana prison department has started a video conferencing facility for Bhondsi jail inmates to help connect with their family members, said officials.

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The initiative, which was introduced last week, was taken after physical meetings were discontinued since March for the 2,500 inmates of the jail due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. Since then only calls were allowed from two landline numbers.

K Selvaraj, director-general (prisons), said that the inmates were missing their family members. “Therefore, we decided to launch video conferencing to ensure they can see each other virtually. It is important to keep their morale high. In this way, they can feel connected with their family members,” he said.

Harinder Singh, jail superintendent of Bhondsi jail, said that this unique initiative was launched with India Vision Foundation. “The inmates were depressed since they were not able to meet and see their family members. We had restricted the meetings due to the Covid-19 pandemic so that we could protect inmates from SARS-CoV-2 virus that was rapidly spreading. Through the service, inmates can also talk to their relatives online through video conferencing, while staying at jail,” he said.

Singh said first three video calls for 10 minutes each will be free of cost. After that, they will be charged ₹2.50 per minute. “An inmate can make a 10-minute call everyday to registered mobile numbers and those who wish to make normal calls can do so for 50 paisa per minute. There is a PCO inside the jail used by inmates. However, the video call will add another value to the services provided to inmates,” he said.

Officers said, initially they have set up 15 video conferencing sets for the inmates and will add more depending on the demand.

Singh said the inmates can use the facility between 7am and 6pm and the sets have been donated by India Vision Foundation.

An in-house software developed by the inmates called ‘Phoenix’ has been connected to the set up for the video conferencing.

Monica Dhawan, director of India Vision Foundation, said that the new project will help the mental well-being of the inmates . “During Covid-19, meetings were restricted due to which inmates were depressed. This video calling facility will help them to connect with their families and will also save the travel time and the expense of their family members,” she said.