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| NYC Wants to Tap Calls In Jail |
| By Newsday.com |
| Published: 09/29/2003 |
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The city's Department of Correction is seeking broader powers to monitor inmate telephone conversations without first obtaining court approval, Newsday has learned. Correction Commissioner Martin Horn recently asked the Board of Correction, a city jails oversight agency, to approve the plan allowing unilateral monitoring of phone conversations without a search warrant, which is currently required. Thomas Antenen, a department spokesman, said Horn "believes it is an essential tool to further improve security in the jails." He said legal calls and calls to investigative bodies would not be monitored. Technology, he said, would be used to block those numbers from the eavesdropping program. Even so, lawyers and jail policy experts said the plan raised a series of basic privacy issues. Attorney-client conversations, for example, are confidential whether the inmate calls his lawyer's office phone or cell phone. Inmates' discussions with doctors, close family members or clergy could also rise to the same standard. John Boston, director of the Legal Aid Society's Prisoners' Rights Project, said the proposal seems "unnecessary and excessive." "Those calls all go over the same telephone system," he said. "We receive many calls every day from prisoners in city jails regarding intensely private matters, medical or family matters, and complaints about misconduct by staff. I would be concerned about retaliation and invasion of privacy. "And don't forget that when prisoners call on the telephone, there is someone on the other end of the line: what about their rights?" Boston added. Robert Gangi of the Correctional Association of New York said the vast majority of inmates on Riker's Island are low-level offenders, and half of them are released within a week. Civil rights attorney Norman Siegel said the current standard is powerful enough - when an inmate is under suspicion, authorities can obtain a search warrant to monitor his telephone calls. Under one part of the proposal, sources said, the department would put up signs at the jails notifying inmates that their conversations may be monitored. In addition, the proposal at one point makes reference to the federal USA Patriot Act, which allows officials to monitor telephone conversations for security reasons. Logistical questions remain, such as how much staff the department will devote to the eavesdropping operation. The correction board has yet to publicly discuss the proposal. |
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Tapping calls of inmates is really necessary that’s why this privilege should be awarded to all police departments and other law enforcing agencies. It is very easy to get essay writing services for the assignments online. It is necessary for the security purposes.