What phone calls are recorded?
Most phone calls from prison are recorded and stored, and can be monitored or listened to by prison staff.
The exception to this is exempt calls. They are calls to the below list of people and organisations. Exempt calls cannot be monitored, recorded or stored. If you make an exempt call and get a message saying the call will be recorded, you should hang up and tell prison staff straight away.
Exempt calls are calls made to:
- A lawyer or paralegal who is representing you or giving you legal advice
- Victoria Legal Aid – Prisoner Legal Help
- Defence & Veterans Legal Service
- Your Story Disability Legal Support
- A Member of Parliament (including the Minister for Corrections)
- Secretary, Department of Justice & Community Safety
- Correctional Services Commissioner
- Victorian Ombudsman
- Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC)
- Victorian Inspectorate
- Health Complaints Commissioner
- Mental Health and Wellbeing Commissioner
- Victorian Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commissioner (VEOHRC)
- Australian Human Rights Commission
- Commissioner for Privacy and Data Security
- Diplomatic or Consular Staff
- Telephone numbers assigned to Royal Commissions
- Any law enforcement agency in Australia (like Victoria Police, Australian Federal Police, Australian Crime Commission);
- First People’s Assembly of Victoria
- Department of Social Services Mail Code 121112
- Disability Royal Commission (DRC)
- Quit Line
- Child Support Agency
- Hepatitis Infoline
- National Redress Scheme
- Link Up Vic
- Relationships Vic
- Blue Knot National Counselling & Referral
If your call is not exempt, you should expect that the call is being recorded.
Important: if you use a phone call to commit a crime, for example contacting a person who has an intervention order against you, or intimidating a witness, the prison can give the recording to Victoria Police to use as evidence for a criminal investigations.