Queensland’s prisoner telephone system has been upgraded resulting in lower call costs for inmates and increased security.
In a statement, Queensland Corrective Services said the move to a digital system would provide clearer, high-quality calls.
It said it would also allow more phones to be installed throughout Queensland’s correctional centres.
“The upgraded system will have enhanced security and intelligence features, which will help protect victims of crime and prevent further offending by telephone,” the Service said.
It said another benefit of the upgrade was a reduction in call costs, with local call rates dropping by 25 percent, national calls 20 percent cheaper and the cost of calls to mobile phones reduced by 49 percent.
“Calls to mobile phones will be charged per second, so prisoners only pay for the time they actually use,” the statement said.
It said calls to numbers of the Common Auto Dial List, such as the Queensland Ombudsman or Legal Aid Queensland, were always free.
The statement said in 2023-24, prisoners in Queensland made over 7.7 million calls, spending 66,500 hours talking to family, friends, and legal services.
“Maintaining strong connections with family and friends is a key factor in helping prisoners turn their lives around. One of the ways they can do this is through regular phone calls.”
It said Queensland’s prisoner phone system, which started in 1996, allowed prisoners to make calls using money from their trust accounts.
“They can call approved numbers at any time from their units, except when they’re in their cells, working, or attending education or rehabilitation programs.”
The statement said before a new number was added to a prisoner’s call list, it went through various checks to ensure the recipient wanted to be contacted and that there were no court orders preventing the contact.
