Phone list
If you want to call someone from prison, they have to be on your phone list, even if they are your lawyer.
There are some organisations that you can call without putting them on your phone list. They are:
- Mental Health Complaints Commissioner (dial *3)
- Quit Line (dial *4)
- Victorian Ombudsman (dial *5)
- Health Complaints Commissioner (dial *6)
- IBAC (dial *7)
- Child Support Agency (dial *8)
- Hepatitis Infoline (dial *9)
- National Redress Scheme (dial *11)
- Link Up Vic (dial *13)
- Relationships Vic (dial *15)
- Blue Knot National Counselling & Referral (dial *16)
- Your Story Disability Legal Support (*15)
- Victoria Legal Aid Prisoner Legal Help Service (dial *18 – only at MRC, Port Phillip, DPFC, Loddon – Middleton Annex, and Ravenhall)
- Anonymous Information Line (dial *19)
- Defence & Veterans Legal Service (dial *20)
Important: prisons are not allowed to tell people in the community who is on your phone list. If a person wants to check if they are on phone list, they will need to ask you in a letter or during a visit.
Adding people to your phone list
The rules about phone lists come from the Commissioner’s Requirements 4.2.1.
You can have up to 20 numbers on your private approved phone list at a time. This is for people like friends, family or support workers.
- To add someone to your private phone list, you need the Request for Private Telephone Numbers to be Approved or Varied form.
You can have another 20 numbers on your exempt approved phone list. This is for numbers belonging to people or external agencies who are exempt, like your lawyer.
- To add a person or organisation to your exempt phone list, you need the Request for Exempt (Including Legal) Telephone Numbers to be Approved or Varied form.
You will need the person or organisation’s name and phone number for the application. If you need help filling out the form, speak to your case worker or unit manager.
A phone number will only be added to your phone list once the person who owns that number has agreed to accept calls from you, including your lawyer. The General Manager or a staff member they choose will call the number to make sure the owner agrees.
Important:
- Prison staff are supposed to check whether there is an active intervention order protecting someone before calling to ask if their number can be on your phone list.
- If a prison staff member suspects that a person you have requested is under 16, they are supposed to get written consent from a legal guardian before the child is added to the list.