Prison telephones 'too dear'

CONSUMER groups have lodged an official complaint over the high charges prisoners pay to make phone calls.

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

Costs levied by Siemens in Scotland and BT in England and Wales are so prohibitive that half of calls from prisons last less than three minutes, according to the National, Scottish and Welsh Consumer Councils.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust – which is backing the complaint – said keeping prisoners in touch with their families reduced the risk of re-offending on release, and suicide and self-harm in prison.

But the Scottish Prison Service rejected the claims, and said its call rates were about the same as payphones.