Inmates in Vietnam are allowed to make phone calls once a month for no more than 5 minutes per call

Inmates in Vietnam are allowed to make phone calls once a month for no more than 5 minutes per call

To be specific, Article 22 of the Military Prison Regulations issued with Circular 132/2012/TT-BQP stipulates the phone communication policy for inmates with their relatives in Vietnam as follows:

- Prisons cooperate with local postal and telecommunication agencies to install telephones and organize for inmates to contact their relatives by phone. The call charges follow the pricing of the postal and telecommunication agencies and are to be paid by the inmates.

- inmates are allowed to contact their relatives within the country once a month, for no more than 5 minutes per call. Juvenile inmates are allowed to contact their relatives up to 4 times a month, each call not exceeding 10 minutes. For inmates who comply well with the prison regulations and have achievements in labor and learning, the prison warden can decide to increase the call frequency by one more call each month for no more than 5 minutes. When making calls to their relatives, inmates must register the content of the communication and speak in Vietnamese. If they do not know Vietnamese, someone fluent in that language must oversee the communication. In urgent cases that directly affect the legitimate rights of the inmates, the prison warden can decide on additional time and content for phone communication.

- inmates who are being disciplined with confinement in the disciplinary room or under consideration for disciplinary actions, or those who are being prosecuted, investigated, or tried for other crimes, are not allowed to contact their relatives by phone.

- All phone calls between inmates and their relatives must be supervised by officers. The prison warden allocates a telephone room and appoints officers capable of closely monitoring the content of the exchanged information. If the content of the call does not match the registered content, violates educational or management requirements, or affects security and order, the call must be immediately terminated. In necessary cases, a report must be made, and disciplinary actions proposed for the violating inmate.

- Supervising officers must update information in the Monitoring Logbook for inmate's phone contacts with their relatives.

- It is strictly forbidden for officers, soldiers, employees, or others to allow inmates to use their phones for communication. It is also forbidden for inmates to use someone else's phone to make calls.

Details can be found in Circular 132/2012/TT-BQP, which comes into effect in Vietnam from January 21, 2013.

Le Vy

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