Need to hire 400 more staff members to give phone access to jail inmates: Govt

On Monday the Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court that prisons in the state were severely shortstaffed It also mentioned that the state did not have the infrastructure to provide phone and video call access to jail inmatesIn an affidavit filed in the Bombay High Court through Maharashtra Additional DirectorGeneral Prisons Sunil Ramanand the state government said it will need to hire at least 400 more staff members to even begin offering such facilities to prison inmatesThe government was responding to a Public Interest Litigation PIL filed by the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties seeking immediate installation of phones and other electronic modes of communication for the resumption of video and voice calling facilities in all prisons in the state so that the inmates can speak with their lawyers and relativesThe PIL said during the first two waves of the Covid19 pandemic prison authorities across the state had provided telephone and video conference facilities to all prisoners irrespective of the offences they were charged withThe state government in its affidavit said the above facility had been introduced as an exception between 2020 and 2021 purely on compassionate and humanitarian grounds because of the pandemicrelated restrictionsAlso Read Mumbai Crime Man booked for sodomising 20yearold inmate in Arthur Road JailIn its affidavit the state government said it had provided for coin boxes where inmates could make phone calls after depositing coins in the phone box and added that it had also procured smart phones WiFi facilities tablets etc for phone and video callsHowever now that the state had resumed mulaqaat or physical meetings between inmates and their lawyers and other visitors the above facilities had been withdrawn it saidThe state did not have the requisite machinery or infrastructure to continue providing telephone and video conferencing facilities the affidavit informedBesides while the Model Prison Manual 2016 prepared by the Union Home Ministry provides for video and phone call facilities for inmates the manual has not yet been adopted by Maharashtra the state government told the HCThe prayer of the petitioner therefore cannot be granted The management of prisons in Maharashtra is governed by the Maharashtra Prison Manual 1979 This manual doesnt provide for videocalling facilities for inmates to contact their lawyers or family members the affidavit saidThe state said in the absence of a statutory provision for the same such facilities cannot be claimed as a matter of right by prison inmatesDuring the days hearing a bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice SS Shinde directed Maharashtra governments counsel Advocate General AG Ashutosh Kumbhakoni to visit some prisons in the state to take stock of facilities provided there including access to phone calls and videoconferencingThe HC directed the AG to submit within three weeks an independent report after his visitDuring the hearing Justice Shinde said Most prisons have a capacity of 600 inmates and there are over 3500 prisoners So all facilities have to be updated accordingly The prisoners should know about the status of their matter and how much sentence have they servedWe will keep this matter after three weeks In the meantime on Justice Shindes request you AG should visit prison and give us your independent report the HC said