REMOVE WOLSTON CORRECTIONAL CENTRE'S 28/42 WEEKLY PHONE CALL LIMIT
REMOVE WOLSTON CORRECTIONAL CENTRE'S 28/42 WEEKLY PHONE CALL LIMIT
The issue
REMOVE WOLSTON CORRECTIONAL CENTRE'S 28/42 WEEKLY PHONE CALL LIMIT
Families shouldn't have their connection rationed without a clear reason.nWe are calling on Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) and Wolston Correctional Centre to remove the fixed numerical limit on personal telephone calls currently understood to apply at Wolston:
• 28 personal calls per week for standard prisoners
• 42 personal calls per week for prisoners who have achieved Enhanced status
We are asking for the numerical limit to be removed and replaced with reasonable access to approved personal calls when telephones are available and operational circumstances permit. Unlimited calls does NOT mean unlimited phone time. Calls can remain time-limited. Approved-number requirements, monitoring, security procedures, operational restrictions and fair-use rules can all remain.
We're simply asking:
If the phone is available, the number is approved, the prisoner has the funds to pay for the call and nobody else is being prevented from accessing the phone — why should a weekly counter stop someone from calling their family?
WOLSTON'S CALL LIMIT STANDS OUT
We looked at publicly available information about prisoner telephone access across Australia. What we found raises serious questions about why Wolston continues to impose a fixed numerical weekly allowance on ordinary prisoners.
New South Wales: Corrective Services provides a limited number of funded/free personal calls, but published policy allows prisoners to make additional calls at their own expense. The free-call entitlement is not the overall maximum number of calls.
Victoria: Numerical limits have been documented, but the examples we located were associated with separation or restrictive management regimes including limits such as 15 calls per week and, in one documented restrictive situation, one or two calls per day. We did not find evidence that these represent an ordinary statewide mainstream prisoner allowance.
Western Australia: We found restrictions concerning call duration, telephone availability and access, but did not identify a current general numerical calls-per-day or calls-per-week ceiling for ordinary prisoners.
Tasmania: Material we located has described personal calls in a high-security setting as not numerically restricted except where disciplinary sanctions applied.
Australian Capital Territory: Personal calls are time-limited and subject to approved-number and security requirements, but we did not identify a normal numerical daily or weekly call ceiling.
Northern Territory: Prisoners are subject to approved-number and telephone-access requirements, but we did not identify a published ordinary numerical daily or weekly allowance.
South Australia is the notable exception. Published South Australian information states that prisoners have a limited number of outgoing calls each week and that the number can vary from prison to prison.
So we are not claiming that Wolston is literally the only correctional centre anywhere in Australia where a numerical restriction can ever apply.
However:
Outside South Australia, we have not identified another Australian jurisdiction with a publicly documented ordinary prisoner telephone system equivalent to Wolston's reported fixed 28/42 calls-per-week limit.
Other numerical restrictions we located were generally associated with separation, restrictive management or particular prisoner circumstances rather than being the ordinary allowance.
That raises a very simple question:
WHY DOES WOLSTON NEED THIS LIMIT?
Queensland already has extensive controls over prisoner telephone use.
• Calls are made to approved numbers.
• Calls have limited durations.
• Telephone use is subject to availability and operational requirements.
• Calls can be monitored and recorded in accordance with applicable rules.
• Prisoners pay applicable personal call costs.
QCS can impose restrictions where legitimate security, safety, disciplinary or operational circumstances require them. With all of those safeguards already available, what additional purpose is achieved by telling a prisoner they have reached an arbitrary numerical limit and cannot make another approved call?
QCS'S OWN POLICY RECOGNISES “REASONABLE ACCESS”
Queensland's Corrective Services Act 2006 allows QCS to regulate the frequency, length, time and conditions of prisoner telephone calls. The legislation also establishes a minimum level of personal telephone access. But a minimum entitlement does not have to become a maximum allowance.
QCS's publicly available Prisoner Entitlements Prisoner Communications procedure also provides for prisoners to have reasonable access to the Prisoner Telephone System, subject to legitimate restrictions. If infrastructure and operational circumstances allow additional reasonable telephone access, why prevent it solely because a prisoner has reached a numerical counter?
FAMILY CONNECTION MATTERS
For someone serving time, a telephone call isn't always just a phone call.
• It's speaking to their children.
• It's checking on their partner.
• It's hearing their mum or dad's voice.
• It's maintaining relationships that incarceration already places enormous pressure on.
• It's having support during difficult periods.
• It's maintaining connections with the community they will eventually return to.
Families on the outside feel these restrictions too.
• They wait for calls.
• They support their loved ones through sentences, court matters, parole applications and eventual release.
Healthy relationships should be encouraged wherever possible not unnecessarily rationed.
TECHNOLOGY HAS CHANGED
QCS has invested in upgrading prisoner telephone infrastructure across Queensland, including replacing older telephone equipment and installing additional phones. If telephone availability and infrastructure have improved, then historical numerical restrictions should also be reviewed. If a restriction was originally introduced because telephone access was limited, QCS should establish whether that reason still exists today.
WHAT WE ARE ASKING FOR
We call on Queensland Corrective Services and Wolston Correctional Centre to:
1. Remove the fixed 28-personal-call weekly limit for standard prisoners.
2. Remove the fixed 42-personal-call weekly limit for Enhanced prisoners.
3. Replace those numerical limits with reasonable access to approved personal calls when telephones are available and operational circumstances permit.
4. Keep reasonable call-duration limits so everyone has fair access to available telephones.
5. Retain QCS's ability to individually restrict telephone access where genuinely required for security, safety, disciplinary or legal reasons.
6. Publish Wolston's current telephone-access rules, including the authority and operational reasoning behind the 28/42-call limits.
7. Review whether the original justification for those numerical limits remains relevant following upgrades to prisoner telephone infrastructure.
THIS IS NOT ABOUT UNLIMITED PHONE TIME
Nobody is asking for a prisoner to sit on a telephone all day. A call can remain limited to its existing duration. When that call finishes, the telephone becomes available for somebody else. But if that same telephone becomes available again later — and nobody else is waiting to use it — why shouldn't that prisoner be able to make another approved call? Unlimited number of calls does not mean unlimited access to the telephone. It means removing the arbitrary numerical ceiling while retaining fair-use rules. There is a huge difference.
CONNECTION SHOULDN'T BE RATIONED WITHOUT GOOD REASON
Incarceration necessarily involves restrictions. But restrictions should have a legitimate purpose. If QCS believes Wolston's 28/42-call limit remains necessary, families and prisoners deserve to know:
Why 28? Why 42?
What evidence supports those particular numbers? What operational problem would occur if the numerical limit were removed while call-duration and fair-use restrictions remained? When was the policy last reviewed?
And importantly:
Why does Wolston require this restriction when comparable publicly available mainstream prisoner telephone arrangements are difficult to identify across most other Australian jurisdictions? If there is a genuine operational reason, QCS should explain it. If that reason no longer exists, the restriction should change.
REMOVE THE 28/42 WEEKLY CALL LIMIT.
Allow reasonable access to approved personal calls based on telephone availability, fair use, security and operational requirements not an arbitrary weekly counter.
• A conversation with a child matters.
• A call to a partner matters.
• Checking on a parent matters.
• Maintaining family relationships matters.
Connection with family and positive support networks should be encouraged not unnecessarily rationed.
Please sign and share this petition if you believe Wolston Correctional Centre's weekly numerical telephone limit should be reviewed and removed.
71
The issue
REMOVE WOLSTON CORRECTIONAL CENTRE'S 28/42 WEEKLY PHONE CALL LIMIT
Families shouldn't have their connection rationed without a clear reason.nWe are calling on Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) and Wolston Correctional Centre to remove the fixed numerical limit on personal telephone calls currently understood to apply at Wolston:
• 28 personal calls per week for standard prisoners
• 42 personal calls per week for prisoners who have achieved Enhanced status
We are asking for the numerical limit to be removed and replaced with reasonable access to approved personal calls when telephones are available and operational circumstances permit. Unlimited calls does NOT mean unlimited phone time. Calls can remain time-limited. Approved-number requirements, monitoring, security procedures, operational restrictions and fair-use rules can all remain.
We're simply asking:
If the phone is available, the number is approved, the prisoner has the funds to pay for the call and nobody else is being prevented from accessing the phone — why should a weekly counter stop someone from calling their family?
WOLSTON'S CALL LIMIT STANDS OUT
We looked at publicly available information about prisoner telephone access across Australia. What we found raises serious questions about why Wolston continues to impose a fixed numerical weekly allowance on ordinary prisoners.
New South Wales: Corrective Services provides a limited number of funded/free personal calls, but published policy allows prisoners to make additional calls at their own expense. The free-call entitlement is not the overall maximum number of calls.
Victoria: Numerical limits have been documented, but the examples we located were associated with separation or restrictive management regimes including limits such as 15 calls per week and, in one documented restrictive situation, one or two calls per day. We did not find evidence that these represent an ordinary statewide mainstream prisoner allowance.
Western Australia: We found restrictions concerning call duration, telephone availability and access, but did not identify a current general numerical calls-per-day or calls-per-week ceiling for ordinary prisoners.
Tasmania: Material we located has described personal calls in a high-security setting as not numerically restricted except where disciplinary sanctions applied.
Australian Capital Territory: Personal calls are time-limited and subject to approved-number and security requirements, but we did not identify a normal numerical daily or weekly call ceiling.
Northern Territory: Prisoners are subject to approved-number and telephone-access requirements, but we did not identify a published ordinary numerical daily or weekly allowance.
South Australia is the notable exception. Published South Australian information states that prisoners have a limited number of outgoing calls each week and that the number can vary from prison to prison.
So we are not claiming that Wolston is literally the only correctional centre anywhere in Australia where a numerical restriction can ever apply.
However:
Outside South Australia, we have not identified another Australian jurisdiction with a publicly documented ordinary prisoner telephone system equivalent to Wolston's reported fixed 28/42 calls-per-week limit.
Other numerical restrictions we located were generally associated with separation, restrictive management or particular prisoner circumstances rather than being the ordinary allowance.
That raises a very simple question:
WHY DOES WOLSTON NEED THIS LIMIT?
Queensland already has extensive controls over prisoner telephone use.
• Calls are made to approved numbers.
• Calls have limited durations.
• Telephone use is subject to availability and operational requirements.
• Calls can be monitored and recorded in accordance with applicable rules.
• Prisoners pay applicable personal call costs.
QCS can impose restrictions where legitimate security, safety, disciplinary or operational circumstances require them. With all of those safeguards already available, what additional purpose is achieved by telling a prisoner they have reached an arbitrary numerical limit and cannot make another approved call?
QCS'S OWN POLICY RECOGNISES “REASONABLE ACCESS”
Queensland's Corrective Services Act 2006 allows QCS to regulate the frequency, length, time and conditions of prisoner telephone calls. The legislation also establishes a minimum level of personal telephone access. But a minimum entitlement does not have to become a maximum allowance.
QCS's publicly available Prisoner Entitlements Prisoner Communications procedure also provides for prisoners to have reasonable access to the Prisoner Telephone System, subject to legitimate restrictions. If infrastructure and operational circumstances allow additional reasonable telephone access, why prevent it solely because a prisoner has reached a numerical counter?
FAMILY CONNECTION MATTERS
For someone serving time, a telephone call isn't always just a phone call.
• It's speaking to their children.
• It's checking on their partner.
• It's hearing their mum or dad's voice.
• It's maintaining relationships that incarceration already places enormous pressure on.
• It's having support during difficult periods.
• It's maintaining connections with the community they will eventually return to.
Families on the outside feel these restrictions too.
• They wait for calls.
• They support their loved ones through sentences, court matters, parole applications and eventual release.
Healthy relationships should be encouraged wherever possible not unnecessarily rationed.
TECHNOLOGY HAS CHANGED
QCS has invested in upgrading prisoner telephone infrastructure across Queensland, including replacing older telephone equipment and installing additional phones. If telephone availability and infrastructure have improved, then historical numerical restrictions should also be reviewed. If a restriction was originally introduced because telephone access was limited, QCS should establish whether that reason still exists today.
WHAT WE ARE ASKING FOR
We call on Queensland Corrective Services and Wolston Correctional Centre to:
1. Remove the fixed 28-personal-call weekly limit for standard prisoners.
2. Remove the fixed 42-personal-call weekly limit for Enhanced prisoners.
3. Replace those numerical limits with reasonable access to approved personal calls when telephones are available and operational circumstances permit.
4. Keep reasonable call-duration limits so everyone has fair access to available telephones.
5. Retain QCS's ability to individually restrict telephone access where genuinely required for security, safety, disciplinary or legal reasons.
6. Publish Wolston's current telephone-access rules, including the authority and operational reasoning behind the 28/42-call limits.
7. Review whether the original justification for those numerical limits remains relevant following upgrades to prisoner telephone infrastructure.
THIS IS NOT ABOUT UNLIMITED PHONE TIME
Nobody is asking for a prisoner to sit on a telephone all day. A call can remain limited to its existing duration. When that call finishes, the telephone becomes available for somebody else. But if that same telephone becomes available again later — and nobody else is waiting to use it — why shouldn't that prisoner be able to make another approved call? Unlimited number of calls does not mean unlimited access to the telephone. It means removing the arbitrary numerical ceiling while retaining fair-use rules. There is a huge difference.
CONNECTION SHOULDN'T BE RATIONED WITHOUT GOOD REASON
Incarceration necessarily involves restrictions. But restrictions should have a legitimate purpose. If QCS believes Wolston's 28/42-call limit remains necessary, families and prisoners deserve to know:
Why 28? Why 42?
What evidence supports those particular numbers? What operational problem would occur if the numerical limit were removed while call-duration and fair-use restrictions remained? When was the policy last reviewed?
And importantly:
Why does Wolston require this restriction when comparable publicly available mainstream prisoner telephone arrangements are difficult to identify across most other Australian jurisdictions? If there is a genuine operational reason, QCS should explain it. If that reason no longer exists, the restriction should change.
REMOVE THE 28/42 WEEKLY CALL LIMIT.
Allow reasonable access to approved personal calls based on telephone availability, fair use, security and operational requirements not an arbitrary weekly counter.
• A conversation with a child matters.
• A call to a partner matters.
• Checking on a parent matters.
• Maintaining family relationships matters.
Connection with family and positive support networks should be encouraged not unnecessarily rationed.
Please sign and share this petition if you believe Wolston Correctional Centre's weekly numerical telephone limit should be reviewed and removed.
The Decision Makers
Supporter voices
Petition Updates
Share this petition
Petition created on 4 October 2026