Summary: Rights to mail and when prison staff can open, stop and censor mail.
People in prison have the rightto send and receive letters and parcels, including people in segregation. These rights come from sections 47(m) and 47(n) of the Corrections Act 1986 (Vic).
You will usually have to pay to send mail, unless it is internal mail, which is free. Internal mail includes:
- Mail to another prison
- Mail to particular external bodies and government agencies – for a full list, use the link to internal mail on the left side of this page
When can prison staff open my mail?
Everyone in Victoria has the right to not have their mail arbitrarily stopped, opened, read, inspected, censored or destroyed. This comes from section 13 of the Victorian Human Rights Charter and is recognised in the Deputy Commissioner’s Instructions 4.07.
Like all rights in Charter, there can be limitations in certain circumstances. There are laws that allow prison staff to do some of these things to mail coming in and out of prison, but only in certain circumstances.
Most mail and packages can be checked by prison staff, but they can only be thrown out if the General Manager or a staff member they choose thinks it contains a banned item (contraband) that could be immediately dangerous to a person. These laws come from sections 47A and 47C of the Corrections Act 1986 (Vic) and regulations 17 and 19 of the Corrections Regulations 2019 (Vic).
The rules are different for exempt mail. Exempt mail is letters or parcels to or from certain people or organisations, like your lawyer or the Victorian Ombudsman. Exempt mail is confidential and can only be opened in certain circumstances and with particular procedures that must be followed.
For more information on when prison staff can and can’t interfere with your mail, use the links on the left side of this page:
- When can prison staff open my mail?
- When can prison staff open exempt mail?
- Stopping and censoring mail
- What can be censored?
Prison staff making copies of mail
Prison staff can make a copy of general mail to give to you and throw the original out. If the document is printed in colour, the copy should be in colour too. This comes from section 47CA of the Corrections Act 1986 (Vic).
Prison staff should never throw out:
- Legal documents (these should be put in your valuable property)
- Sentimental items like photographs (these should be given directly to you or a copy made and the original put in your property or sent back to the sender)
Prison staff are not allowed to make a copy of exempt mail. They must give you the original.
Requests to stop mail
You can ask to stop receiving mail from a particular person in the community if they have been sending you threatening or harassing mail.
A person in the community can request to stop receiving mail from you. If this happens, the prison will notify you, and return any mail you sent to that person. If you try to send mail to that person again, you can be charged with a prison offence.
Important: it’s an offence to send distressing or traumatic mail to the victim of an offence. This comes from section 47DA of the Corrections Act 1986 (Vic).