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The special report on phone call charges for detainees is now available
The Commonwealth Ombudsman, in his capacity as the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Ombudsman, this week released a report about detainees in a correctional facility being overcharged for phone calls, ‘Phone-call-charges-at-the-Alexander-Maconochie-Centre.pdf’
The Ombudsman found detainees were overcharged for phone call costs over 2 years, resulting in 980 people who were overcharged a total of $123,235AUD, with 486 of these people still collectively owed over $46,000.
The Ombudsman also found the agency responsible, ACT Corrective Services, had not properly considered the appropriateness of new call charges and that it had been overcharging people in detention for their phone calls.
The Ombudsman made 5 recommendations to ACT Corrective Services, to:
- review call costs
- publicly apologise
- reimburse those affected
- establish facilities for people in detention to receive calls as required by the law
- implement digital services to improve communications access.
ACT has accepted all 5 recommendations.
Kindly click here to read the full media release. The report can be found in the donwload section below.
Source: The Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Australia
