Odisha: Drone Surveillance & Prisoner Calling Facility In Twin City Jails Soon

Bhubaneswar: Sensitive prisons in Odisha will soon come under aerial surveillance as the government plans to use drone cameras to keep an eye on the activities of prisoners.

The facilities will be used for Choudwar Circle Jail in Cuttack and Jharpada Special Jail here. A prisoner calling system will also be launched in the twin city of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

The Directorate of Prisons and Correctional Services has issued a circular mentioning the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in a bid to tighten surveillance at the two main jails.

Four telephone booths will be set up at each jail. The prisoners will be asked to share only two phone numbers of their respective families and biometric finger prints of the prisoners will be collected for security reasons.  The phone numbers will be stored in the calling system and they will be allowed to make one call everyday.

The prisoner will be charged Rs 5 for the 5 minute call a day that they are allowed to make.

The Directorate will procure 20 body cameras for the two jails in first phase. The jail personnel coming in direct contact with inmates will be equipped with the body cams within a month.

“Cameras will be used by the staff to record any wrongdoing by inmates in areas not covered by CCTV cameras, during searches when inmates return from courts and hospitals and while shifting notorious criminals to hospitals,” said a senior police officer.