Mobile phones will not be allowed in to Queensland prisons after a convicted murderer used one to plot an escape using a helicopter and firearms.

Prisoners are banned from having mobile phones but the new ban has been extended to cover visitors and staff members.

Corrective Services Minister Judy Spence issued the overall ban amid concerns prisoners could take advantage of new technology which allowed people to transmit audio and digital pictures, access the Internet, send and receive e-mails and text messages.

Earlier this year, authorities successfully foiled an escape attempt from Lotus Glen Correctional Centre, near Cairns, when a convicted murderer used a mobile phone to plot a getaway involving firearms and a helicopter.

"Intelligence officers retrieved SMS messages detailing the escape plans from a mobile phone that had been smuggled into the prison and found in the prisoner's possession," Spence said today.

"While there have been no escapes from secure custody since the Beattie government came to office in 1998, we are always looking at ways to further improve prison security."

Spence said recent advances in mobile phone technology posed a security risk.

She said mobile phones in prisons had been identified worldwide as a "significant and growing problem" as phones were becoming smaller and easier to hide.

"If offenders get access to mobile phones while in jail, they could continue criminal activities, threaten people in the community or access telephone banking facilities," she said.

Spence said her decision followed a recommendation to the Corrective Services Ministers' Conference in May.