How Much Do Calls From Prison Cost?

If you are trying to work out how much prison calls are costing your family, or why the phone credit seems to run out so quickly, this guide gives you the full picture. A lot of the information online is outdated or simply wrong. The rates changed significantly in April 2025 and the most recent confirmed figures come from a Freedom of Information request published by Inside Time in July 2025. We use those figures throughout this page.

The Official UK Prison Call Rates in 2026

All publicly managed prisons in England and Wales use a phone system provided by BT under a contract with the Ministry of Justice. The per-minute rates prisoners pay are set nationally by HMPPS and apply to every call made from any in-cell phone or communal wing phone across the estate. Following a 20% reduction that took effect on 1 April 2025, the confirmed rates for 2026 are as follows.

HMPPS defines weekday as midnight Sunday through to midday Friday, and weekend as midday Friday through to midnight Sunday. There is a minimum charge of 10p per call regardless of length. A call that lasts only a few seconds still costs 10p in phone credit. Calls to the Samaritans helpline are free from every UK prison phone, and some other approved wellbeing numbers may also be free depending on the establishment.

Many websites still quote figures such as 13p, 16p, or even 25p per minute for calls to mobiles from prison. These are outdated and refer to rates that were in place before the April 2025 reduction. The correct 2026 weekday rate for calling a UK mobile from prison is 5.50p per minute. If a page you have read quotes a different figure, check when it was last updated.

What Prison Calls Cost in Practice

The per-minute rate is one thing. What it means for your family's finances week by week is another. The tables below give a clear picture of the actual spend at different call lengths and frequencies, comparing what your loved one pays if they call your mobile directly versus calling a virtual landline number that forwards to your mobile.

These figures assume 22 weekdays and 8 weekend days per month, with weekday rates applied throughout for simplicity. The saving column shows how much less your loved one spends on phone credit each month if you switch to a virtual landline number. Over a year, even on the most modest call pattern in the table, the saving exceeds £79. On daily 30-minute calls the annual saving is nearly £295.

These are not small numbers for a family already dealing with the financial strain that a prison sentence brings. And the saving does not require sending more money in or cutting back on calls. It comes purely from the type of number being dialled.

Why Calls to Mobiles Cost So Much More Than Landlines

The difference between 2.48p and 5.50p per minute is not arbitrary. It comes from how the national HMPPS telephony contract with BT structures its billing. Mobile numbers (those starting with 07) are placed in a different billing tier from standard geographic landline numbers (those starting with 01, 02, or 03). This reflects a broader pattern in UK telecoms where mobile termination rates have historically been higher than fixed-line termination rates, though the gap in the consumer market has narrowed significantly in recent years.

The practical result for prison families is stark. As recently as 2010, practically every UK household had a landline. By 2026, most families rely entirely on mobile phones and have no home landline at all. This means the majority of prisoners end up calling mobile numbers simply because that is the only number their family has. They pay the higher mobile rate by default, not by choice, and the cumulative cost to families across the country runs into tens of millions of pounds each year.

This is the structural issue that a virtual landline addresses. By giving your loved one a local landline number to call instead of your mobile, you change which billing tier the call falls into. They pay the lower rate. You receive the call as normal on your mobile. Nothing else changes.

How the Prison Phone System Works

Understanding how calls are made from prison helps explain both why costs accumulate as they do and what options are available to manage them.Every prisoner in a UK prison is given a personal PIN number when they arrive. Before making any call, they enter this PIN on the prison phone handset. The system checks whether the number they are dialling is on their pre-approved contact list. Each prisoner can hold up to 20 approved numbers on this list. If the number is approved, the call connects and the per-minute cost is deducted from their phone credit balance in real time. If the number is not on the approved list, the call will not go through at all.

Adding a number to the approved list requires a submission by the prisoner through the prison's administration system, often a kiosk or an in-cell tablet, followed by a security check by prison staff. This process typically takes a few days and means that families cannot receive calls until the number has cleared. This is worth knowing if your loved one has just arrived at a new prison or been transferred.

Phone credit is not topped up automatically. Prisoners purchase credit through the weekly prison canteen system, allocating funds from their private cash balance. The private cash balance is funded by money sent in from family via the GOV.UK payment service, plus any wages earned from prison work. Phone credit is ordered alongside other canteen items such as toiletries and snacks, which means the timing of credit arriving is linked to the weekly canteen cycle rather than being instant.

All calls made through a prisoner's personal PIN account, with the exception of calls to solicitors and legal representatives on a separate legal phone account, are recorded and may be monitored by prison staff. Both parties are informed of this at the start of each call. There is no way to opt out on a personal call, and this applies regardless of the subject of the conversation.

In-Cell Phones vs Communal Wing Phones

There are two types of phone access in UK prisons and they create very different experiences for families in terms of when calls are likely to come and how long they might be.Most prisons built or significantly refurbished in the last 15 years have in-cell phones. These are handsets fitted directly in each room, and prisoners at these establishments can make calls at any time rather than being restricted to association periods. HMP Berwyn, HMP Wandsworth, and many other modern establishments all have in-cell phones. The flexibility this creates is considerable. Your loved one can call in the evening, at weekends, or during any other period they have access to their room, which for many sentenced prisoners is a large portion of the day.

In older prisons without in-cell phones, calls are made from shared handsets in corridors or on the wing. These are only accessible during association periods, which are typically a couple of hours spread across the morning, afternoon, and early evening. Competition for communal phones is often intense, particularly in the evenings, and prisoners may not always get through to the phone during their allocated association time. If your loved one is in a prison without in-cell phones, factoring this into your expectations about when calls will arrive is important.

The per-minute rates are identical regardless of the type of phone used. The rate depends only on the destination number type and the time of day, not on whether the call is made from an in-cell handset or a communal wing phone.

What the Rates Mean Against a Prison Wage

The numbers above need to be read alongside the income a prisoner actually has available. Prison wages in England and Wales are among the lowest of any comparable setting. Most prisoners earn between £5 and £22 per week depending on the type of work or activity they are assigned to.

A prisoner on a standard £10 per week wage earns roughly £40 per month. Spending £24 of that on weekday calls to a mobile number represents 60% of their monthly income, leaving £16 for everything else they need from the canteen, including toiletries, stamps, snacks, and any other items the prison does not provide as standard. In reality, most prisoners rely on family top-ups to cover all of their canteen needs, which transfers the cost burden directly onto households already managing without a household member's income.

This is the human context behind the rates. The numbers themselves seem small at first glance, but against the financial backdrop of a prison sentence, the cumulative monthly cost of staying in regular phone contact is genuinely significant. A 55% reduction in per-minute cost through a virtual landline is not a marginal improvement. For many families it is the difference between regular daily contact and having to ration calls to keep within budget.

Why the Rates Changed in April 2025

Prison call rates in England and Wales were higher before April 2025. The previous weekday mobile rate was 6.88p per minute and the landline rate was 3.10p per minute. The 20% reduction that took effect on 1 April 2025 was the result of pressure from prison reform organisations, families, and the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, following sustained campaigning over several years.

The Ombudsman, Adrian Usher, has been particularly vocal on this issue. He has said publicly that when his office investigates deaths in prison, it frequently finds that the prisoner had run out of phone credit and was unable to call a loved one in the period immediately before their death. He has called for the per-minute charging model to be replaced entirely with a flat-rate subscription model, similar to how prisoners pay a flat fee for in-cell television access, after which calls would be free up to a maximum permitted allowance.

The Ministry of Justice responded to this proposal in correspondence with the Justice Select Committee in July 2025, acknowledging it as a direction worth considering but noting that the current contract with BT runs until May 2027 and that any structural change would realistically not happen before 2029. The rates confirmed in that same correspondence, 2.48p and 5.50p per minute, are locked in until the contract expires.

A parliamentary petition calling for a 5p per minute cap and a free weekly call allowance for all prisoners gathered significant public support in 2025, reflecting the fact that many families, advocates, and campaigners still regard the current rates as too high even after the reduction.

Prison Call Rates in Scotland

Scotland operates a completely separate prison telephony system through the Scottish Prison Service, independent of the HMPPS contract covering England and Wales. The Scottish system works differently in a way that is considerably more generous to families.

Prisoners in Scottish prisons receive 200 free call minutes every month. After that monthly allowance has been used, calls are charged at 5p per minute for all UK numbers, regardless of whether the destination is a landline or a mobile. There is no distinction between the two.In practical terms, 200 minutes is 3 hours and 20 minutes of talk time. A family with daily calls of around 10 minutes would use roughly 300 minutes per month, meaning approximately 100 minutes would be charged at 5p per minute each month, costing around £5 in phone credit. For many families of prisoners in Scottish establishments, the financial burden of phone calls is considerably lower than for families in England and Wales.

Prison Call Rates in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland prisons are managed by the Northern Ireland Prison Service, which operates independently of both HMPPS and the Scottish Prison Service. Rates and procedures are governed by separate contractual arrangements. For current guidance on call costs from prisons in Northern Ireland, it is best to contact the Northern Ireland Prison Service directly, as tariffs are subject to change under their own procurement cycles and may differ from those outlined in this guide.

How to Cut the Cost of Prison Calls by Over 55%

The most effective and immediate way to reduce what your loved one spends on phone credit is straightforward: change the type of number they call. Calling a landline costs 2.48p per minute on weekdays. Calling a mobile costs 5.50p per minute. The conversation itself is identical in every way. The difference is purely in the billing category the prison phone system uses to charge the call.

A virtual landline makes this possible for families without a traditional home phone. A virtual landline is a standard UK local phone number with a normal geographic area code, for example 020 for London or 0161 for Manchester, that forwards all incoming calls to your mobile. When your loved one dials it from their PIN phone, the prison system sees a landline number and charges the lower landline rate. The call arrives on your mobile exactly as if someone were calling your regular number. No app to install, no changes to your phone, no special equipment on either end.

On a daily 20-minute weekday call, switching from a mobile number to a Prison Call virtual landline saves 61p per call, over £13 per month, and more than £160 per year. The phone credit that would have lasted two weeks on mobile rates now lasts more than four weeks on landline rates from the same amount of money sent in. That is not a workaround or a loophole. It is simply using the cheaper billing category that already exists within the HMPPS rate structure.

Prison Call provides this service from £19.99 per month. There is no setup fee, no long-term commitment, and the number is sent to your email within minutes of signing up. Your loved one adds it to their PIN list once through the prison's normal process, and every call after that is automatically cheaper. If they are transferred to another prison, the number works there too and they just need to add it to the new PIN list in the same way.

Other Ways to Stay in Touch Without Running Up Call Costs

Phone calls are the most immediate and personal form of contact, but they are not the only option. Using a combination of methods can reduce how heavily phone credit is used while still maintaining regular, meaningful contact.

The Email a Prisoner service at emailaprisoner.com allows you to send messages that are printed and delivered directly to the cell, usually the next working day. There is a small per-message fee, typically around 30 to 40 pence, which is less than the cost of five minutes on a mobile call. Some prisons also allow prisoners to send typed replies through the same system. For sharing longer updates, photos, news from home, or anything that would take up a significant chunk of an expensive call, email is a cost-effective supplement.

There is no limit on how many letters you can send to someone in prison, and the cost is just the price of a stamp and envelope. Letters travel slightly more slowly than email but they give your loved one something physical to keep. Many families find that writing regularly, even briefly, maintains a sense of closeness and reduces the pressure on calls to carry the full weight of communication. Reserving calls for conversation and news and letters for longer, more reflective updates is a pattern many families settle into naturally over time.

CallsVideo calls are available at most UK prisons through the Prison Video app at prisonvideo.gov.uk. Slots need to be requested and approved from the prison side and availability varies, but video contact is particularly valuable for children who benefit from seeing as well as hearing a parent. Most prisons that offer video calls allow at least one session per week where slots are available. Setting this up does take a little time initially but it is worth the effort.

National Prison Radio broadcasts into cells across England and Wales 24 hours a day. Families can submit song requests, written messages, and pre-recorded voice messages through nationalprisonradio.com. These are played and read out on regular programmes. It is a small gesture but one that costs nothing and lets your loved one know they are being thought of, even outside of scheduled call times.

The weekend mobile rate of 3.60p per minute is around 35% cheaper than the weekday rate of 5.50p per minute. HMPPS defines the weekend as starting at midday Friday, so a call on Friday afternoon already benefits from the lower rate. If your loved one has access to an in-cell phone and both of you are available, scheduling longer calls on Friday afternoons or over the weekend is a simple way to reduce costs without any additional services or subscriptions.

The Future of Prison Call Costs

The current rates are fixed until 31 May 2027 under the existing BT contract. Beyond that date, the situation is uncertain. The Ministry of Justice has said in correspondence with the Justice Select Committee that it will consider moving to a flat-rate charging model when the contract comes up for renewal, with any structural change unlikely to take effect before 2029. Under such a model, prisoners would pay a fixed weekly or monthly charge and receive a set allowance of free call minutes, similar to how most people now pay for mobile plans in everyday life.

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has made this proposal a consistent part of his public work, citing evidence that prisoners who cannot afford to call home are at greater risk during periods of distress. The parliamentary petition for a 5p cap and free weekly allowance shows there is genuine public appetite for further reform. Whether the 2027 contract renewal delivers meaningful change for families remains to be seen. The current government has signalled willingness to discuss the issue but has made no binding commitments.

In the meantime, the most practical thing any family can do is ensure their loved one is calling a landline number rather than a mobile. It will not feel like a solution to the underlying problem, and it should not have to be necessary. But for the duration of the current contract, it is the single most effective action available to families who want to reduce costs without reducing contact.

The cost of prison phone calls can place a heavy burden on both inmates and their families. With prisoners earning low wages and often relying on financial support from their loved ones, the expense of making regular calls—especially to mobile phones—can quickly add up. However, maintaining regular contact with family and friends is essential for the well-being and rehabilitation of inmates.

As discussions around prison phone call costs continue, there is hope that future reforms will help reduce these financial pressures. Lowering the cost of communication would not only benefit prisoners and their families but also contribute to reduced reoffending rates and improved rehabilitation outcomes.

In the meantime, services like Prison Call and other providers like can offer some relief, helping prisoners stay connected without breaking the bank.