Tihar jail to use biometric system to check phone misuse

In order to check misuse of the phone facility given to its prisoners, Tihar jail authorities plan to use a biometric fingerprint system.

In order to check misuse of the phone facility given to its prisoners, Tihar jail authorities plan to use a biometric fingerprint system.

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"Every prisoner has to give a finger impression before he uses the telephone to make a call. This will help us to check any misuse of the phone facility," spokesperson and law officer, Tihar Prisons, Sunil Gupta said.

Already a biometric fingerprint system exists in the jail to ensure that no prisoner is released mistakenly and also to know whether the person is a habitual offender.

Every new prisoner is photographed and his fingerprints taken. If he is readmitted or released, his finger impression is put in the machine which would immediately flash his photograph confirming his identification.

"We have many prisoners with the same name. A finger print impression is unique to each individual and will help us differentiate one person from the other. In this way we can know that a particular individual used the telephone by which we can also avoid confusion," Gupta said.

This facility will be initiated in another two months. "Prisoners will charged an amount of Rs 50 every month for the calls they make," he said. Gupta said the system, which will cost around Rs 15 lakh, will be set up soon and all calls made by prisoners will be recorded.