Row over phone call costs in jails

Consumer groups have lodged an official complaint over the high charges prisoners are paying to make phone calls.

The "super complaint" to regulator Ofcom says a 30-minute phone call from a prison to a landline costs more than seven times the amount of a call from a public payphone.

Costs provided by BT in England and Wales and Siemens in Scotland are so prohibitive that half of all calls from prisons last less than three minutes, the groups claim.

The complaint has been made by the National Consumer Council (NCC), Scottish Consumer Council (SCC) and the Welsh Consumer Council (WCC) with the support of the Prison Reform Trust (PRT).

It says prison calls remain high despite a 60% drop in the cost of other basic telephone services, and claims the existing service seeks to prevent competition.

NCC acting chief executive Philip Cullum said: "We're extremely concerned by the nature of this market. Just because the consumers are prisoners it doesn't mean they should be exploited and pay well over the odds for telephone calls.

"A super-complaint is not a move we take lightly and comes on the back of anxieties raised by other official bodies. Our analysis indicates that BT and Siemens may be charging prisoners amounts that are way out of line with their actual costs."

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "Prisoners staying in touch with their families is known to reduce the risk, both of reoffending on release and of suicide and self-harm in prison, so it is in everyone's interest to enable people to phone home.

"Prohibitive call charges may make a profit for some but they do nothing to create a safer society."

The complaint follows similar criticisms by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman for England and Wales and by prison Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs).