AURANGABAD: The state prison department issued a circular granting inmates lodged in prisons permission to make phone calls to their families back home twice a month, depending on their overall behaviour in jail. Each call can last 10 minutes.This facility now extends even to those convicted and facing capital punishment. The behaviour of those in jail will be monitored before permission is granted for them to call their kin. Those suffering from life-threatening conditions, inmates who have spent over two years in jail and those over 60 years old have been made eligible to make calls.In 2011, Tihar Jail in the national capital was the first to implement a scheme on these lines. Over time, other jails in the country followed suit, including Yerwada Central Jail in Pune. Earlier inmates were allowed to make phone calls once in a month, for five minutes. The duration and frequency of these calls has now been doubled. Approximately, 28,000 convicts and under-trials are lodged in 54 central, state and district prisons across the state. Of these, 13 are open prisons. Two are women-only jails – in Akola and Pune.The latest communication offers all jail inmates, excluding those accused of terrorism, Naxalism, gang wars and organised crime permission to call home. The cost of the call will be deducted from earnings the prisoner makes while working inside the prison. Foreign nationals languishing in different prisons have not been granted the facility.The superintendent of police has been instructed to identify and list eligible inmates and collect the phone numbers of their family members; the SP has also been instructed to ensure that the facility is not misused.The contact number as well as the name of the person in whose name it is registered, will be jotted before the number is sent to police for cross-verifying.Only after the police grant clearance will the inmate be allowed to speak with his family. Prison authorities plan to record the audio conversations, so a check is kept on unwanted communications.

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