STATEMENT ON DETAINEE TELECOMMUNICATION RIGHTS
PRISON DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE
Morocco April 21-24 2026
The CJC based in Australia has had a continuing engagement with the ICPA Technology in Corrections conferences. As a former penal colony, our convict past offers well-documented lessons on respect, tolerance and change. The prison in our national capital is named to honour such a lesson – Alexander Maconchie.
We look for the promised leadership and honesty from the ICPA in support of the import model of detainee access to telecommunications.
At the Adelaide 2023 TIC conference, the participants on the opening panel stated that they agreed with the principles of the Nairobi Declaration for Detainee Telecommunication Rights. The ICPA itself, and some delegates and sponsors, said they would consider formal endorsement.
At the Istanbul 2024 conference, the issue of detainee access to mainstream services was totally ignored Our Report was distributed to attendees defining the compelling arguments.
At the Bangkok 2025 conference, the import model was discussed and wasn’t challenged. The industry clearly had accepted that it would be the future. Our Report was about the details.
However, in practice, detention authorities are locking out the services, although the devices are in place and services ready to be switched on.
Governments are left looking dishonest because of prison authorities’ intransigence.
Typical is the scenario where the Minister for Youth Justice told our Parliament, under oath, that supplying online counselling in cells was too expensive – at the same time as charging $1.17m a year per child. Video here.
After a media buffeting, he insisted that his internal counselling, despite the conflict of interest with security, was better than external mainstream counselling. A consultation with national counselling organisations contemptuously dismissed that too. Recidivism is 85%. A Senate Inquiry into youth justice in currently under way.
The major themes of this year’s conference – humane detention, future rethinking, technology, and rehabilitation – all require explicit attention to the digital divide for detainees. We are disappointed that the challenge has not been accepted.
The UNODC & ICRC Handbook does not refer to the Nairobi Declaration and no clauses have been proposed in the draft Abu Dhabi Declaration for the World Crime Congress 2026.
The richness of music, art, language, could all be switched on. Personal development and hope are waiting. Counselling, telehealth, and restorative justice – all resulting in a provably safer community – await access to telecommunications in the cells. Millions of prisoners have been left frustrated for years with education no longer on hard copy. Violence against guards could be reduced by 60%. The costs are miniscule and the benefits compelling.
In 2017, the CJC won the implementation of Computers in Cells in NSW, to reduce the recidivism rates of domestic violence perpetrators, behind research that it would spare 500 women and children from domestic violence, and save $110 million annually. It cost $42m to install the system. Prisoners now have devices in their cells with limited telecommunications access, but nowhere has external counselling been turned on, despite it being the stated reason for the investment.
The government has yet to justify why it is blocking prisoners from receiving counselling. Security isn’t lessened as everything is recorded, and with visits, phones and letters movement accepted.
The Minister is left looking irrational by his Department. He is outnumbered in Parliament including from his own side. Here is the latest. Domestic violence is a community concern. Its frequency has increased by 24% since 2023, and the problem is getting worse.
For further clarity, we have added links to the 8-page CJC letter to the Minister, the Minister’s response, and transcript with commentary from the Budget Estimates 2025-26 transcript.
The import model is essential. It is:
- Effective in providing trusted external counselling without a conflict of interest with a security role.
- Efficient, as they are often already paid for by governments.
- Existing through the sentence and available after release.
- Emotionally important, enabling detainees to feel connected to the outside community.
We call on the ICPA and conference participants to give support for the import model and the Nairobi Declaration for Detainee Telecommunication Rights as the way forward to safer communities across the world.
Please send us an email and assist with the urgent essential work.
Community Justice Coalition
info@communityjusticecoalition.org
http://www.communityjusticecoalition.org/
P.O. Box 345, Broadway, NSW 2007 Australia