Queensland Corrective Service allows the family or friends to visit their loved one in prison. As what the corrections in Queensland recognize, it’s very important for inmates to keep strong links with their family and friends during their time in prison.
If you want to visit your loved one in a prison housed in one of the Queensland correctional facilities, you may need to fill out the visitor application. However, you may not know yet what the application form to fill out, where to get it and how to fill out the visitor application. Thankfully! You can find everything about the visitor application in our post below.
What Form is Used to Visit an Inmate in Prison?
To visit an inmate incarcerated in one of the Queensland correctional facilities, you may need to complete a personal visitor application called Form 27. After filling out all the fields on the form, you can return the form to the correctional center you want to visit your loved one in prison.
You can visit your loved one in prison for up to 1 hour of visiting time each week, aside from the time with the lawyer. Well, visits can be contact or non-contact. For non-contact visits, you can take advantage of Virtual Personal Visits (VPNs). If you are a new visitor and are seeking a VPV, you should go through the same application process as visitors to a center.
Read also: How to Contact a Prisoner in QLD
Furthermore, the official visitors will be specially appointed to visit inmates regularly to help them manage and solve any problems or complaints that they may have. It is known that official visitors are independent of prison staff who work together with them to resolve prisoner complaints.
How to Get the Visitor Application (Form 27)
It’s pretty easy to get the visitor application (form 27). You just simply visit a personal visitor application page here. Once you click the link, you will be taken into the download page of visitor application (form 27).
After you are at the personal visitor application page, you can see the ‘URL’ and click on it to download the visitor application form. Then, the form will be automatically downloaded into your storage.
That’s how to download the visitor application (form 27) as the approval for access to a Corrective Services Facility and Visit a Prisoner (Personal Visitor). Well, downloading the personal visitor application (form 27) to visit a prisoner is very straightforward, isn’t it?
What if you can’t download the personal visitor application? If you accidentally cannot download the personal visitor application (form 27), Queensland Corrective Service will send the form to you by mail.
You can request a personal visitor application (form 27) by sending an email to StatewideOperationsCommunications@corrections.qld.gov.au.
How to Fill Out the Visitor Application (Form 27)?
To fill out the personal visitor application form, you will need the following:
- Your identification (ID) documents
- State if you have any criminal convictions, including your record criminal in another state or territory.
- Photocopies of your ID signed by a Justice of the Peace or Commissioner for Declarations.
The person in charge can approve a contact, virtual visit or non-contact. Need to know, the contact visits are personal visits during which there is direct physical contact between you and the inmate.
Before you can have a contact visit with your loved one in prison, you will be security checked that will take up to 6 weeks. Thus, you can then request a non-contact visit or virtual visit.
To provide your personal information on the form 27, your ID should be current, since expired ID will not be accepted. Here are the accepted IDs you can provide:
- Credit card, debit card, or bankbook with your name and signature
- Medicare card
- Driver licence
- Pension or other social security card
- Birth certificate
- Passport
- An identification card, containing your photo, issued by a law enforcement agency, the Supreme Court, a state government entity and an educational facility
- A letter which identifies you by name that is signed by a member of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander organisation
- A statutory declaration witnessed by a Justice of the Peace or Commissioner for Declarations identifying you by name and signature.
Your security clearance should be updated every 12 months. You will have to bring your approved ID with you every time you visit. If you do not have your approved ID, you’re not allowed to visit your loved one in prison.
Can You Bring Children as Visitors?
If you should bring your children as visitors to visit an inmate, you have to complete the relevant section on the personal visitor application (form 27). Your children should have an established relationship with the prisoner and of course, you should provide proof of the child’s identity.
The person in charge should be satisfied that:
- There are no court orders that prevent contact between the child and the prisoner.
- A visit is in the best interests of the child.
The correctional facilities may impose special conditions on the child’s visit, such as requiring a non-contact visit. An application for a child visitor should include any 1 of the identification documents listed above.
How to Book a Prison Visit?
You can book a visit after you are approved. You definitely should book all personal visits in advance during nominated booking times. Every prison has its own system, so you can contact the prison for details and visiting times.
Furthermore, the prison will keep a register of all people who have been security cleared, including:
- Your full name
- Your date of birth
- The date of your security check
- Your criminal history file number (if any)
- The prisoner(s) you’re visiting
It is known that each prison has a different allowance for the number of people visiting. The correctional facilities allow visits for a house at a time each week, because of social distance regulations.
How to Search for the Location of Prison in Queensland Corrective Service?
If you do not know yet the location of a prison where your loved one is incarcerated, you can take advantage of the Prison Locations Search tool that you can access here.
To search for the location of a prison, you can enter the location or postcode in the available bar. After that, you can click on the ‘Compass’ icon button to start searching for the location of a prison.
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