Confidential visits from professional staff (including lawyers)
Prisons must be able to provide confidential visits to people in prison by:
- Lawyers
- Judges and Magistrates
- Independent Prison Visitors
- Certain Corrections Victoria staff (including Sentence Management Division)
- Community Correctional Services
- Consular Officials
- Staff from the Victorian Ombudsman’s office
- Staff from the Justice Assurance and Review Office
- WorkSafe Victoria
- Psychologists and psychiatrists doing an assessment
- NDIS supports
- Prison release programs
Professional visits are different from visits by friends or family. Professional visitors do not need to be on your visitor’s list, and you don’t need to book the visits yourself (the visitor can organise this with the prison).
Professional visits do not take away from your minimum visit allowance or rights.
Important: Prison officers may be able to see you and your visitor during the visit, but they should not be able to hear you.
Visits by lawyers
Your lawyer can have visits with you in-person, by video call or over the phone. Lawyers can attend in-person visits at prisons between 8.30am and 3.30pm, or at another time if it’s agreed by the General Manager.
Lawyers do not need to be on your visitor’s list to visit or call you. However, if you want to be able to call your lawyer yourself, you will need apply to have them on your phone list. The prison will check with the lawyer to make sure they are representing you and consent to being on your phone list.