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A hacker has given The Intercept a trove of 70 million phone records leaked from Securus Technologies, exposing the insecurity and questionable legality of the services offered to people imprisoned in the U.S.:
An enormous cache of phone records obtained by The Intercept reveals a major breach of security at Securus Technologies, a leading provider of phone services inside the nation's prisons and jails. The materials — leaked via SecureDrop by an anonymous hacker who believes that Securus is violating the constitutional rights of inmates — comprise over 70 million records of phone calls, placed by prisoners to at least 37 states, in addition to links to downloadable recordings of the calls. The calls span a nearly two-and-a-half year period, beginning in December 2011 and ending in the spring of 2014.
Particularly notable within the vast trove of phone records are what appear to be at least 14,000 recorded conversations between inmates and attorneys, a strong indication that at least some of the recordings are likely confidential and privileged legal communications — calls that never should have been recorded in the first place. The recording of legally protected attorney-client communications — and the storage of those recordings — potentially offends constitutional protections, including the right to effective assistance of counsel and of access to the courts.
"This may be the most massive breach of the attorney-client privilege in modern U.S. history, and that's certainly something to be concerned about," said David Fathi, director of the ACLU's National Prison Project. "A lot of prisoner rights are limited because of their conviction and incarceration, but their protection by the attorney-client privilege is not."
[More after the break.]
The Federal Communications Commission recently capped the per-minute cost of prisoner phone calls, amid a debate on how such services are offered in prisons:
There's one big task left: to apply similar rules to newer technologies — like email, voice mail and person-to-person video — which are subject to the same kinds of abuses found in the telephone industry.
There's little doubt that inmates who keep in touch with their families have a better chance of finding places in their communities and staying out of jail once they are released. But before the F.C.C. intervened, a call from behind prison walls could sometimes cost as much as $14 per minute. Thursday's order sets a cap of 11 cents per minute for all local and long-distance calls from state and federal prisons. [22 cents per minute for local jails.] This means an average (and much more affordable) rate of no more than $1.65 per 15 minutes for a vast majority of intrastate and interstate calls.
Prisoners' families, who pay for these calls, are among the poorest in the country. The new system will allow them to keep in touch without going broke. But the F.C.C. ruling does not get to a fundamental problem: Inmate telephone costs are partly driven by a "commission" — essentially a legal kickback — that phone companies pay corrections departments. The commissions are calculated as a percentage of revenue, or a fixed upfront fee, or a combination of both.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 12 2015, @04:33PM
Well let's tell a story here. Once apon a time a large group of people thought that another group of people where their property. To be bought, sold, bread and butchered like animals. A third group of people thought what the first was doing to the second was abhorrent and asked them to stop, saying we're all people to be treated equally and no one person should own another.
The first group was so unwilling to change that they went to war, lost and then where forced to recognize the second group as people too. But forced recognition isn't the same as Truly changing someone's heart. The first group still felt the same way about the second group, but because of pesky new laws they could not express their opinions and thus felt frustrated.
Fast forward a little. Members of the first group took offence to members of the second group now being able to afford some of the benefits of modern society (at the time) like riding the bus or eating at a restaurant or using a public bathroom. Owners of venues tried to appease the first group by saying the second group couldn't use their facilities or only could use designated facilities. Members of the third group thought what the first was doing to the second was abhorrent and asked them to stop, saying we're all people to be treated equally and that everyone should have the same rights as everyone else.
The first group was unwilling to change. This time they didn't want to fight a real war but they where still sore about losing the last one so they waged a political war to try and force the second group to stay in their place. They failed when large numbers of the second group marched in support of each other and with the help of the third group won the political battle. New pesky laws where passed that said members of the first group could no longer deny the second use of their venues. There was more frustration.
Fast forward to today. Members of the first group have thinned, but not quietened. They still falsely believed that members of the second group are beneath them, and now felt pleanty of animosity towards the third group after losing at every conflict of consequence. In amongst all these laws where exceptions for criminality. The answer was obvious. Make laws that only those of the other groups would break. Make these laws worse in everyone's eyes than the second and third groups combined. Make the punishments for breaking these laws severe as possible. As close as possible to the way things where before the balance was upset.. Because no one from the first group who are really from the first group would do those things.
Now I am just talking out of my ass and no not everyone from every group thinks this way, but some do. The only thing we really can do in this world is make sure you don't act this way.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday November 12 2015, @04:56PM
"Now I am just talking out of my ass"
Yes - no - maybe? You're not telling the full story accurately, but it's close enough to pass on a working knowledge of the situation to any outsiders who might be interested.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 12 2015, @07:08PM
While inside, for your crimes, repeat this three thousand times:
Where bread were bred.