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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: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday November 12 2015, @05:24PM
Bear in mind that the prison population is a rolling number. Some number of people go to prison for forever. Others spend decades in prison. Others are repeatedly sentenced to shorter terms. Many others go to prison for short terms, and are released, only to be replaced by new faces. The numbers below help to put this all in perspective. They also make it obvious that exiting the prison gates doesn't end your involvement with "the system". You might serve ten years inside the prison walls, then spend another fifteen years jumping through hoops to amuse some dirtball parole officer.
Tens of millions is accurate.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29469360/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/study-us-adults-prison-system/#.VBl_ivldWSo [nbcnews.com]
Study: 1 in 31 U.S. adults in prison system
Report urges states to spend more on parole, probation programs
Nati Harnik / AP
The Lincoln Correctional Center is one of two adult corectional facilities in Lincoln, Neb. One in every 44 adults in Nebraska is in jail, on parole or on probation, according to a new study. While the number may seem high, Nebraska is actually below the national average.
NEW YORK — The number of offenders on parole and probation across the United States has surged past 5 million, complicating the challenges for fiscally ailing states as they try to curb corrections costs without jeopardizing public safety, according to a new report.
The Pew Center on the States report, released Monday, says the number of people on probation or parole nearly doubled to more than 5 million between 1982 and 2007. Including jail and prison inmates, the total population of the U.S. corrections system now exceeds 7.3 million — one of every 31 U.S. adults, it said.
The report also noted huge discrepancies among the states in regard to the total corrections population — one of every 13 adults in Georgia and one of every 18 in Idaho at one end of the scale, one of every 88 in New Hampshire at the other extreme. The racial gap also was stark — one of every 11 black adults is under correctional supervision, one of every 27 Hispanic adults, one of every 45 white adults.
The report notes that construction of new prisons will be increasingly rare as most states grapple with budget crises. It said improved community-supervision strategies represent one of the most feasible ways for states to limit corrections spending and reduce recidivism.
"Every single one of them should be making smart investments in community corrections that will help them cut costs and improve outcomes," said Susan Urahn, managing director of the Center on the States.