Yukon's legal aid lawyers are questioning a new phone policy at the Whitehorse jail, which requires inmates to pay at least $1.35 to make telephone calls.

Inmates receive a daily allowance of $2.50.

Officials say the new system is aimed at increasing security and cost-efficiency.

Whitehorse inmates get an allowance of $2.50 a day. Each local call they make costs at least $1.35. (CBC)

Yukon legal aid director Nils Clarke said his office has been unusually quiet since the policy was implemented earlier this month.

"We believe it's a fundamental access to justice issue. One of the unintended consequences is if a person in impecunious, that is they have no money whatsoever, they can actually not apply for legal aid because they can't make a call to legal aid to apply for legal aid. I have a current application here, forwarded by fax, because they are not able to call," he said.

Clarke wondered how inmates without money can call a lawyer.

"We hope it's not mean-spirited. We hope it's not trying to deny access to justice. We hope it's not to try and further marginalize poor and aboriginal individuals in the Yukon."

Chantelle Genier manages justice programs for the Council of Yukon First Nations. She said inmates have told her the kitchen stops serving dinner at 4:30 p.m. each day, so they count on buying from the canteen to get through the night.

"Has it now come down to a decision between calling your lawyer or buying a snack to get you through to breakfast the next morning? A pretty tough decision and an unfair one, in my opinion," she said.

Genier and Clarke said their legal services should be exempt from the policy.