Shanghai allows prison inmates to video chat with family members

The Shanghai municipal government has launched a new service that allows prison inmates to video chat with their family members, reports the Shanghai-based eastday.com.

Baimaoling Prison, run by the Shanghai municipal government, is located more than 260 kilometers west of Shanghai in Langxi County, Anhui Province. It is one of four prisons outfitted with a new video call service that allows inmates to video chat with family members. [Photo: IC]

The new service connects four prisons with 19 community centers where family members of inmates convicted of minor offenses can access and make video calls. The four prisons run by Shanghai authorities are hundreds of kilometers away from the city.

Wu Xun, a divorced man serving his sentence at a prison 300 kilometers north of Shanghai, is one of the early users of the new service. Wu had rejected his daughter's requests to visit him, believing that travelling the long distances to and from the prison was a burden for his daughter. The new video call service has allowed Wu to see his daughter for the first time in more than a year.