The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department unlawfully recorded the conversations of dozens of jail inmates and their lawyers, according to recent reports, leading to an investigation into the department and its practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The recordings were done during COVID protocols, when inmates were unable to meet with visitors but could still meet with legal counsel. Those meetings however, were held in the typical phone booth style - with inmates separated from their lawyers by windows and speaking through phone receivers, rather than in private rooms with no recording capability.
Typically, conversations held in those booths are recorded, but the systems were supposed to have been disabled during the private meetings, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Data for a total of 293 visit calls for 154 unique individuals were reviewed from between Dec. 14, 2020 and Nov. 3, 2021, SDCSD Lt. Amber Baggs said in a statement to KNX.
"37 visit calls for 22 individuals involving an attorney/attorney office were recorded," Baggs said. "The remainder of [the 256] visit calls did not involve attorney-client privileged communications."
Baggs said the department worked to disable the recording feature during the calls with Securas Technologies, the company that provides communication services for the department. In some cases, there were delays, Baggs said, and inmates were notified.
"When these conversations are being recorded, a recording [warning] is played at the beginning of the visit, to alert all involved the visit is being recorded," Baggs said.
The SDCSD did not say how many times jail staff requested Securas Technologies to pause recordings for this type of conversation.
Regardless, it is illegal to record the conversations between inmates and their defense attorneys and an investigation has been opened.
Judge John Thompson this month requested details of the illegal recordings, following objections from a defense lawyer who said their conversation with a client had been illegally recorded.
At least one criminal defense attorney has raised concerns about how the COVID protocols are impacting confidentiality.
Herbert Weston has actually declined to meet with his clients in the areas normally designated for social visits because of the taping capabilities and said those decisions are negatively impacting his clients.
“I had 12 life cases at the beginning of COVID, and not one of them has been tried,” he told the Union-Tribune. “If you have clients who are accused of a serious crime, how do you effectively represent them if you can’t see them and can’t talk to them?”
Weston alleges that even before the pandemic the department had failed to effectively use the do-not-record technology by Securas.
In a statement shared with KNX, the Sheriff’s Department said meetings between inmates and defense attorneys are no longer being held in areas designated for family members and friends.
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