At some point in your first week or so, you’ll likely need money putting onto your phone account, and it’s usually your Personal Officer you approach for this. If your request is reasonable, and there’s money in your prison account to cover it, they’ll normally help – though, as with most things in prison, if you’ve been difficult with them, don’t expect much sympathy.
The information on this page is based on the law in England & Wales. If you’re in Scotland or Northern Ireland, click here for the guide for your jurisdiction.
Most prisons now have telephones fitted in individual cells rather than relying only on a shared phone on the wing, though the rollout isn’t complete everywhere and some older or high-security prisons still use shared wing phones instead. Either way, you’ll be issued with a phone PIN within your first couple of days. This lets you call both landlines and mobiles, and you add credit weekly as needed when you fill in your canteen sheet. Before you can call a number, it has to be added to your approved list – done by filling in a simple form and handing it to the office on your wing, with a bit of a wait while it’s checked. There are restrictions on what numbers are allowed: 0800-type numbers that let you call free and get transferred elsewhere aren’t permitted. Call rates in prison aren’t cheap, especially to mobiles, so it’s worth budgeting for.
| Insiders at Court | Transport to the prison |
| Arrival at the prison | Initial Phone Call |
| Moving to the wing/cell | First Night |
| Personal Officer | Induction Processes |
| Working in the prison | |