NSW prison phone call costs made it hard for Chris to stay connected to his family. Advocates say they should be free

Chris, a former NSW corrections inmate, says the lack of contact with his family was ‘depressing’. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

Figuring out the prison phone system was just one more thing Chris* had to do once he got locked up.

“The [prison] officers don’t really help you at all,” he says. “They don’t tell you nothing … You usually just ask one of the sweepers or someone like, ‘How do I use it? What do I do here?’”