Prison phone calls 'too expensive', says MP

A Leeds MP has said that the high cost of phone calls from prison is damaging prisoner rehabilitation.

John Battle (Labour, Leeds West) is asking the Government bring down the cost of calls from prison, having been contacted by a number of constituents over the issue. Currently it costs prisoners 11 pence a minute to make a call – more than five times the standard payphone rate. That means a 15 minute call costs £1.65 from prison, compared to 30p from a phone box.

Mr Battle said: “Research shows that reoffending rates drop dramatically when prisoners have contact with their families and children. If we’re serious about breaking the cycle of reoffending, we need to maximise contact between prisoners and their families – not make it impossibly expensive to make phone calls out. I am asking ministers to look at the issue and reduce the cost of calls so that they are about the same as from a phone box.”

Currently the Prison Service has a contract with BT, who operate a telephone system using specially encoded phonecards. Mr Battle has written to Home Office minister Gerry Sutcliffe to ask him to look at altering the terms of the contract to make calls cheaper.

“Plenty of good rehabilitation work is being done in Armley Prison to help prisoners and their families, but phone calls are an important way of maintaining family relationships. The support networks of family and friends are vitally important in helping prisoners to adjust to life outside when they have completed their sentences. Without those support networks, they are much more likely to reoffend,” he said.

Mr Battle acknowledges that there is a cost attached to maintaining the system, but maintains that the high prices are not justified. “Of course it will cost money to provide and maintain the system, but charging five times more than the standard rate does seem excessive. In any case, with increasingly crowded prisons, we should be trying to bring reoffending rates down – and I am sure cheaper calls would help to do that.

“At this time of year, it’s worth remembering that about 90,000 children will have a parent in prison over Christmas. Perhaps now would be the right time to alter the phone contract so that better contact can be made between prisoners and their children in time for Christmas,” he said.

© John Battle MP 5th December 2006

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