Database of prisoners in offing

A computerised database of all inmates in the country's 68 prisons would be developed soon by the Directorate of Prisons and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) to store detailed information about each of the inmates, Additional Inspector General of Police (prison) Colonel Fazlul Kabir told a press conference at the prison directorate yesterday.

Computer operators of the prison directorate will receive training at the Rab Headquarters following the Prison Week to be held between January 20 and 26.

Inmates would soon be allowed to communicate with their families over cell phones from the prisons, he added.

Each inmate would be asked to provide two phone numbers of their families to the prison authorities when she or he enters the prison. The inmate would then be allowed to talk, send and receive text messages to and from those numbers, Kabir said, adding that the phone conversations and texts would be recorded and evaluated. However, the inmates' families will not be allowed to call them.