The territory's legal fraternity says the glitch is causing problems with access to justice for their clients.

ACT Corrective Services have confirmed that the iris scanning system at the Alexander Maconochie Centre's gatehouse stopped working in October.

The jail receives 13,000 visits each year and all visitors to the jail must subject themselves to the scans.

The process captures the person's identity by taking a picture of their eye and then encrypts and stores the image on a secure database.

Identities are then verified via the stored image on subsequent visits.

The iris scan is the final identification point before entering and exiting the prison.

But jail staff have been forced to undertake the entry and exit process manually since the system collapsed.

Michael Kukulies-Smith, of Kamy Saeedi Lawyers, said lawyers were losing up to 30 minutes per visit to the prison as visitors were now being processed in groups.

Mr Kukulies-Smith, who is also the ACT Law Society's criminal law committee chairman, said the delay meant visits to clients had been shortened, which affected the quality and cost of the legal consultation.

"We previously had unfettered access and could see multiple clients on each visit, [but the defect] causes delays for practitioners, making it difficult to accommodate client visits in the relatively short windows available for face-to-face consultation," he said.

"The only way we can take instructions from clients in custody is to see them face-to-face, phone calls aren't effective.

"There's cost implications for clients and it affects the advice they receive."

Mr Kukulies-Smith said he had been concerned about the delay in repair and seeming lack of a timeline for the scanner to return to normal.

He questioned whether the system would now be permanently scrapped, like the problematic prisoner tracking system.

The ill-fated radio frequency identification system was used to track prisoners within AMC, but was abandoned after several snags, which included the loss of three devices within weeks of each other.

"We hope it doesn't become another misstep by Corrections and fall into disuse like prisoner tracking," Mr Kukulies-Smith said.

A spokeswoman said ACT Corrective Services had received no complaints about the current arrangements.

"While there may be some minor delays in entering the AMC, which is regrettable but unavoidable to ensure security, ACTCS is not aware of any complaints regarding the alternative arrangements," the spokeswoman said.

"All ACTCS staff strive to ensure that visits are positive experiences for detainees and their family and friends, particularly children."

The spokeswoman said the faulty iris scan had not impacted security at the jail, which include dog searches, x-rays, and metal detectors.

Nor had the ongoing bugs jeopardised the security of personal data.

"ACTCS has implemented changes to the security process for people entering and exiting the AMC Gatehouse; all individuals entering and exiting the AMC Gatehouse are identified manually by ACTCS custodial officers and access has been restricted to one door.

"The security of the AMC is paramount, the alternative arrangements put in place by ACTCS and professionalism of staff ensures there is no impact on the security of the AMC.

"The [personal] information [collected by the iris scan] is only used for the purpose of admission; the collection of identifying material for that purpose is by consent, and ACTCS has procedures and infrastructure in place to keep this information confidential and visitors can request that their iris data be deleted from the AMC database at any time."