Cabinet clears AI surveillance cameras and portable signal jammers for prisons

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Following several instances of use of mobile phones inside the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison have come to light, the latest being of former MP Prajwal Revanna, the State Cabinet on Friday decided to equip prisons with AI-based surveillance cameras and portable signal jammers.

Home Minister Priyanka Kharge said that the decision is part of the modernisation of the State’s prisons and the new technologies would strengthen surveillance and prevent unauthorised communication and other activities inside prisons.

The proposed technology will allow the prison authorities to monitor premises more effectively while regulated calling facilities are expected to provide inmates with controlled access to telephone services.

However, the decision has made residents around the prison complex, who have been suffering persistent network disruptions due to jammers at the jail, anxious. They fear that the proposed expansion of jammers could worsen an issue they have been raising with the authorities for years now, to no relief.

“We are unable to make emergency calls or even place online orders because OTPs do not arrive on time. The jammers appear to be blocking signals outside the prison rather than being confined to the prison premises,” said Mohan Kumar, a resident and employee of a private firm.

According to the residents, mobile connectivity becomes particularly unreliable in the areas surrounding the prison, affecting phone calls, OTP-based transactions, Wi-Fi connectivity and other internet-dependent services.

BJP MP C.N. Manjunath on July 21 wrote to the Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia and sought his intervention over the disruption of mobile and internet services around the prison.

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