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This is no easy task, because our country has been experiencing great change for many years.
Take, for example, the technological changes in telephonic communication.
To understand our zeal and dedication to this issue, we first need to be aware that by virtue
of article 75 paragraph 22 of the National Constitution the country has added international
agreements to the SPF’s charter, and has recognised new rights that now have constitutional status.
Thus when an individual is convicted, he may be deprived of his freedom but may not suffer any
restriction of his communications or in his right to information.
In SPF facilities, a prisoner can call whoever he wants, without restriction, and just like anyone in
the outside world can make as many calls as he wants. In some countries, a convict can choose
only five numbers, in others calls are restricted to direct family and a pre-appointed lawyer, but
in this country there are no restrictions, and we agree that there should be none, despite the
significant inconvenience that results.
In principle, calls from cellphones are prohibited, as they are in all of the world’s penitentiary
systems, but the smuggling of cellphones into prisons has become widespread, and many
prisoners who have no interest in rehabilitation are committing crimes such as frauds and virtual
kidnappings by phone. While most of these crimes are committed using cellphones, some are
carried out using the public telephones provided for prisoners’ use.
This harsh reality is the reason why we are implementing a system of control, location and
blocking of high-technology cellphones, and very shortly it will be impossible to make a call
from any cellphone without it being detected, located and immediately interrupted.
The SPF is aware that this will lead to an increase in the use of the public telephones to commit
crime. The public telephones installed in prisons contain a system designed by the phone
company which should always provide a warning to the recipient that the call is being made
from a prison; but by using certain phone cards that are available on the market, many prisoners
have been able to circumvent this warning and carry out virtual kidnappings and other crimes
from these public phones.
To date, service providers have been unable to resolve this problem, and we have instead found
a solution to this serious nuisance using biometrics. We have therefore decided to introduce
biometric and anti-vandal public telephones in all of our prisons, amounting to more than one
thousand phones.
We are making progress in the introduction of this new system of public telephones, which
will feature fingerprint and voice recognition, photographic recording of the caller at regular
intervals, and a record of the time and duration of the call and the number to which it was
made; but in order to guarantee the prisoner’s privacy, all of this data is accessible only with a
court order following a judicial investigation.
So biometrics is helping to guarantee the rights of those who wish to live correctly, and target
only those who seek to offend further. Exercise of the right to communicate is neither removed
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