Prisoners classified under minimum or medium security and belonging to groups A and B can receive contact visits. Other prisoners are not allowed to have contact during visits.

A correctional official may block, open, read, or listen to physical or electronic communications if the prison governor considers that it may jeopardise safety or security, or possess evidence of criminal activity (Regulations to the Correctional Services Act, Regulation 8.4). The prisoner must be informed in writing of the motivations behind the decision and be given the opportunity to make representations (Regulation 8.5).

Sentenced prisoners have the right to 10-minute phone calls. The amount of calls per year depends on their classification:

• group A: 24

• group B: 6

• minimum and medium group C: 6

• maximum, super max and C-Max group C: 0

All groups are entitled to an additional call instead of a visit during the weekend or a public holiday.

Untried prisoners have the right to five 10-minute calls per week.¹

The Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) frequently receives complaints regarding access to payphones. These are often poorly maintained. In 2021/22, the JICS recorded 541 functional and 751 dysfunctional payphones among those managed by Telkom, a third party provider.²

Civil society organisations frequently report non-functioning payphones. The total time allocated for them is often considered insufficient.³ A former prisoner interviewed by Prison Insider explained, “the total time allocated In a given day can be as little as an hour for more than 100 prisoners. So only 5 to 10 prisoners actually get to make a call. Sometimes the payphone would be broken, or a prisoner wouldn’t let go of the phone”.

All calls are recorded in a register. Correctional officials are present and listen to the conversations for security purposes.⁴ Prepaid phone cards have to be purchased and are usually available from the prison commissary.⁵

All calls, except those in remand, are reportedly recorded.¹ In practice, many centres have outdated infrastructure that is incompatible with wire-tapping.

In practice, most prisoners have a cell phone. They may be charged for “smuggling a prohibited or unauthorised device within the correctional centre”, but officials generally confiscate the phones or proceed with disciplinary action such as removing certain rights or isolating the prisoner.¹