Move to introduce videoconferencing in court trials
Videoconferencing facilities will be introduced in Keraniganj and Kashimpur prisons to connect to court trials and avert risks associated with transporting "high-risk" inmates, such as militants, top criminals and "dangerous" persons.
Moreover, a pilot project on installing phone booths at Tangail District Jail will be taken up, sparing inmates' families the trouble of going there to stand in long queues just to talk for a couple of minutes amidst the clamour of others trying to do the same.
The videoconferencing facilities, supported by the Prime Minister's Office's Access to Information programme, will be launched as soon as the law ministry “clears some legal aspects”, said Inspector General of Prisons Brig Gen Syed Iftekhar Uddin yesterday.
He was addressing a press conference at the prisons headquarters in the capital's Bakshibazar marking “Kara Shoptaho 2017” (jail week) from February 26.
Other initiatives include skills training, such as for plumbing, masonry and home wiring, to help prisoners get back to normal lives once they are released on serving jail time, he said.
A proposal has been forwarded to the government with high hopes over providing inmates 10 percent of profits from sale of products they produce inside prisons, he added.
An armed gang ambushed a prison van in Mymensingh's Trishal upazila on February 23, 2014, shooting and hurling bombs to snatch three convicted Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh militants, including two on death row. A police constable was killed.
The video conferences will put an end to such occurrences while the phone booths stop cellphones from being sneaked into prisons, said Iftekhar.
Jail sources earlier told The Daily Star that prison authorities would collect two cellphone numbers before an inmate enters a prison and, on gathering some basic information, allow 15-minute conversations, once a fortnight for suspects and once a month for convicts.
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