Search | Prison Phone Justice

Prison-Area Cell Phone Companies Not Liable for Attempted Hit on Guard

Article • October 14, 2016

Filed under: Failure to Protect (General), Telephones, Cell Phone Access, Contractor Liability

Prison-Area Cell Phone Companies Not Liable for Attempted Hit on Guard by Matthew Clarke In a March 25, 2015, opinion, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held that cell phone service providers and owners of cell towers in the area around a South Carolina prison were not liable for the …

Alabama Public Service Commission Enacts Prison, Jail Phone Reforms

Article • October 3, 2016 • from PLN October, 2016

Filed under: Prison Reform, Jail Specific, Telephones, Telephone Rates

on the underlying telecommunications technology associated with any telephone number.” This article highlights only the major provisions of the PSC’s 105-page July 2014 order; the full text is available ...

Judge Orders End to Recording of Attorney-Client Meetings at CCA’s Leavenworth Detention Center

Article • October 3, 2016 • from PLN October, 2016

Filed under: Corrections Corporation of America/CoreCivic, Jail Misconduct, Prosecutor/Attorney General Misconduct, Attorney Client, Telephone Monitoring

Judge Orders End to Recording of Attorney-Client Meetings at CCA’s Leavenworth Detention Center by Derek Gilna The Kansas Federal Public Defenders’ Office has challenged a scheme whereby officials at a detention center in Leavenworth, Kansas operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) secretly video-recorded confidential attorney-client meetings. As a result, …

No Way to Call Home: Incarcerated Deaf People Are Locked in a Prison Inside a Prison

Article • September 22, 2016

Filed under: Deaf Prisoners, Disabled Prisoners, Americans with Disabilities Act, Telephones, Telephone Access, Telephone Rates, Video Visitation, Family

for the receiver on the other end. For many in the deaf community, VRS is a part of everyday life, just like a landline telephone, but the service is not available at the Jefferson Parish Prison and most jails ...

Securus Settles Lawsuit Alleging Improper Recording of Privileged Prisoner Calls

Article • September 2, 2016 • from PLN September, 2016

Filed under: Attorney Client, Privacy Act, Telephones, Telephone Monitoring, Family

lawsuit within the hacked data. All of the calls contained within the database originated from prison facilities in Missouri, and the majority of the attorney calls were made to attorneys in Missouri ...

Family Connections Bill Signed into Law in Illinois

Article • September 2, 2016 • from PLN September, 2016

Filed under: Release and Reentry, Telephones, Telephone Rates, Family

Family Connections Bill Signed into Law in Illinois by Carrie Wilkinson Illinois Governor Bruce V. Rauner signed HB 6200, the Family Connections Bill, into law on August 22, 2016. Under the provisions of that legislation, domestic prison phone rates within the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and Department of Juvenile …

Massachusetts Prisoners Involved in Reform Efforts Transferred, Held in Solitary

Article • September 2, 2016 • from PLN September, 2016

Filed under: Transfers, Retaliatory Transfers, Retaliation for Organizing, Retaliatory Segregation, Telephone Access, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Visiting

Massachusetts Prisoners Involved in Reform Efforts Transferred, Held in Solitary by Christopher Zoukis Three Massachusetts state prisoners have been placed in segregation in apparent retaliation for their prison reform activism. Timothy Muise, Shawn Fisher and Steven James, all incarcerated at the medium-security prison MCI Shirley, were taken from their cells …

The Fight for Comprehensive Prison Phone Reform Continues

Article • September 2, 2016 • from PLN September, 2016

Filed under: Money/Property, Telephones, Telephone Rates, PLN Litigation, Family, PLN related

The Fight for Comprehensive Prison Phone Reform Continues by Carrie Wilkinson As previously reported in PLN, the prison telecom industry has been successful so far in delaying implementation of the rate caps ordered by the FCC in October 2015. [See: PLN, May 2016, p.36; Dec. 2015, p.40]. And while the …

Arkansas Federal Court Holds No First Amendment Right to Lower Prison Phone Rates

Article • August 25, 2016

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates, First Amendment

no First Amendment right to a specific telephone rate. Arkansas state prisoners Winston Holloway and Joseph Breault filed a civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in federal court alleging ...

Court Certifies Class-Action in Lawsuit Over Washington State Prison Phones

Article • August 23, 2016

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

to the failure of the prisoner telephone service in some Washington State prisons to provide rate information. Sandy Judd, Tara Herivel and Columbia Legal Services are class representatives for persons who ...

Texas Legislature Authorizes Doubling of Prisoners' Monthly Phone Minutes

Article • August 22, 2016

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

Texas Legislature Authorizes Doubling of Prisoners' Monthly Phone Minutes by Matthew Clarke In 2007, when Texas became the last state in the union to allow prisoner phone calls, the limit on phone usage was 120 minutes a month. In 2009, the Texas Board of Criminal Justice (TBCJ) responded to requests …

Los Angeles Sheriff's Office Settles Visitor Beating Case for $1 Million

Article • August 11, 2016

Filed under: Visitor Searches, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Pepper Spray/Tear Gas, Restraints, Cell Phone Access

Los Angeles Sheriff's Office Settles Visitor Beating Case for $1 Million by Derek Gilna Los Angeles County Jail deputies have a reputation for brutal treatment of prisoners, and have paid out millions of dollars in settlements as a result. However, even a man visiting his brother Robert at Men's Central …

Canada: Phone Access Vital for Incarcerated Mothers

Article • August 10, 2016

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Access, Telephone Rates, Mothers in Prison, Children of Prisoners

Canada: Phone Access Vital for Incarcerated Mothers by The Elizabeth Fry Society of Saskatchewan hosted an event on May 11, 2016 that coincided with Mother’s Day to raise awareness about women impacted by the criminal justice system and to highlight the fact that most incarcerated women are mothers and were …

Texas Guards and Prisoners Rarely Prosecuted for Contraband Cellphones

Article • August 10, 2016

Filed under: Guard Misconduct, Telephones, Cell Phone Access

Texas Guards and Prisoners Rarely Prosecuted for Contraband Cellphones by Matthew Clarke According to an investigation conducted by the Texas Tribune, guards and prisoners are rarely prosecuted for the contraband cell phones found within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). The investigation discovered that only 5% of the cellphone …

Guard’s Suspension for Dragging Injured Maine Pretrial Detainee Upheld

Article • August 10, 2016

Filed under: Telephones, Cell Phone Access

Guard’s Suspension for Dragging Injured Maine Pretrial Detainee Upheld by David Reutter Louisiana officials are resorting to unconventional tactics to combat the “international” problem of cellphones within its jails and prisons. Prisoner use of the contraband phones has become so widespread that rarely a day goes by that guards fail …

FCC Quashes Company's Blockage of Discounted Prisoner Call Plans

Article • August 10, 2016

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

incarcerated individuals from calling unauthorized numbers to prevent bypassing their significantly more expensive and monopolistic telephone network sold to correctional institutions in return for a share ...

Louisiana Prisoner Phone Charge Scandal Pushed to Closed Door Session

Article • August 10, 2016

Filed under: Contractor Misconduct, Telephones, Telephone Rates

placed surcharge fees on prisoner telephones behind closed doors. City Tele Coin serves about 30 parish and municipal jails around Louisiana. In 2006, the PSC refused to allow the company to add surcharge ...

Maryland Court of Appeals: Police Must Have Warrant for "Stingray" Phone Tracking

Article • August 8, 2016

Filed under: Police Misconduct, Telephone Monitoring, FBI

Maryland Court of Appeals: Police Must Have Warrant for "Stingray" Phone Tracking by Derek Gilna According to criminal defense attorneys in Baltimore, Maryland, at least 200 individuals are now sitting in prison based upon illegally-obtained cell phone records obtained from the use of "stingray" tracking devices.  The suitcase-sized eavesdropping device …

Not So Securus

Article • August 2, 2016 • from PLN August, 2016

Filed under: Contractor Misconduct, Attorney Client, Attorney Calls, Telephone Monitoring

not include calls to attorney cell phone numbers. In other words, the 14,000 attorney calls are potentially just a small subset of the attorney-client calls that were hacked. In short, it turns out ...

Securus Faces Lawsuit Over Recorded Attorney Calls

Article • August 2, 2016 • from PLN August, 2016

Filed under: Contractor Misconduct, Attorney Client, Telephones, Attorney Calls, Telephone Monitoring

Securus Faces Lawsuit Over Recorded Attorney Calls by Alex Friedmann On May 27, 2016, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Securus Technologies, Inc. in the U.S. District Court ...