Quebec prisoners and their inferior phone access

 
 While telephone calls have become massively easier to make over the last few decades for most of us, one demographic here in Quebec is seeing its ability to reach people on the phone diminish.
   Inmates in Quebec provincial prisons are not  permitted to simply phone people when they want, they need to make collect calls and only to land line phones, no cell phones.
   They are unable to leave messages on voice mailboxes and if the person they're trying to reach has a cell phone, well that's tough, their system doesn't allow them to phone those numbers from inside prison.
   And of course, those who receive those calls - often family - are burdened with expensive collect-call fees which cost much more than a normal call, which is often free or just pennies in long distance charges.
    Prison rights advocate Eric Belisle tells Coolopolis that advocates are now strongly urging Quebec to imitate the federal system which allows prisoners to use a sort of calling card to make their calls.    
   "An inmate trying to reach his lawyer often can't do it, he can't leave a message on a voicemail or call a bank or a 1-800 number. We're seeing this as an increasing problem that we'd like to have solved," he said.