HELLO!!
If you don’t already know…. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!
I have made a short video describing just what it is we do at www.prisonphone.co.uk
(excuse the music :/)
Basically in a nutshell we provide friends and family members of prisoners a way to take the stress out of waiting home for the prisoner to call constantly worrying that for that 10 minutes the prisoner finally gets to use the pay phone that you might be in the garden or out at the shops or even on the loo!
Most prisoners if asked would much prefer to call you on the landline at home,
WHY?
Because its 75% cheaper for them to do so!
An average call to a loved one from prison lasts between 8-10 minutes, if this was a call to a mobile this would be charged at around £4! (on average the prisons charge 40p per minute for a call to a mobile)
Now even if you don’t think £4 is a lot of money lets put it like this the average basic allowance for a prisoner is £15.50 per week (a lot more prisoners are now on basic and I believe Mr Grayling is to thank for that……but I guess that’s another blog for another day)
That’s to buy their bits from the Canteen sheet, tobacco, sweets, television rental, razor blades, deodorant AND phone credit …. Don’t even get me started on what women have to buy but as you can probably guess once a month things get a little bit more expensive for women in prison.
So lets even argue and say a prisoner can put £10 a week on their PINS phone..
OK great they have credit!
who should they call? Mum.. you’ve gotta call mum at least once a week haven’t you?
Dad… he wasn’t with mum when you called so you better give him a shout..
The wife… she is going through this prison sentence as well…
what about their daughter or son whose football match is at the weekend and needs some encouragement.
That’s two ten minute calls and one five minute call to a mobile and the credit is zero! (how would you split it?)
Well that’s it back to nothing no PINS phone credit and now they must wait until the next lot of £15.50 becomes available so they can start this routine again!
Do me a favour pick up the phone……. GO ON…… give your Mum or Dad or Nan or Wife/husband or child a call ….. Are you dialling???
After exactly ten minutes put the phone down… I bet it doesn’t seem that bad right?
well now ask yourself this!
if you was sat in your bedroom all day with just the likes of Jeremy Kyle to keep you entertained and you haven’t spoken to whoever it is you just called all week do you think that ten minutes would stretch far enough to keep a decent family connection….
NO WAY
It would almost force you to become a stranger!
So you ask why…. Why is it so expensive??
Surely the prison service understand that being able to keep strong family ties helps to reduce re-offending (that costs the UK tax payer between 9bn and 13bn ,bn is not a typo it stands for BILLION per year), self harm and suicide… There are 2 thirds of women at the moment in Compton Vale prison in Scotland on Suicide watch surely these issues need to be addressed!
Take a look!
Well I’ve expressed my views on this another blog post entitled Riots at Oakwood so take a little look there if you like 🙂
https://www.prisonphone.co.uk/blog/riots-at-oakwood/
How we help at Prison phone is by allocating a dedicated, fixed, local landline telephone number to your existing mobile phone with no diverts and no fuss! So instead of that ten minute call costing the prisoner on average £4 it will only cost them the landline rate of £1…..
yep!
That’s a huge 75% saving for the prisoner meaning they can either call you four times as often or call four members of their family instead of just one!
Then the family member or friend pays prison phone to receive the calls (at 7p per minute) after their free minutes allowance has expired meaning the burden is lifted from the prisoner and the family member can continue with their day to day life without having to rush home at a certain time to hopefully not miss the call!
There’s no topping up required as Prison phone use a BACS approved direct debit system that goes in and take’s the payment directly from your UK bank or building society account, (after sending you a detailed and easy to understand invoice two weeks beforehand)
WOW glad I got all that off my chest!
So hopefully this little blog goes someway to explaining what we do but if not as the title suggests here a little video I produced….. ENJOY…..
A video describing what prison phone does!
As always feel free to comment on YouTube share the post on Facebook or re-tweet it to your followers on twitter.
Take care and stay safe
xClairex
