Michael A. Kakuk  |  June 1, 2016

Category: Consumer News

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mans hands behind bars in jail or prisonA class action lawsuit alleges that Securus Technologies Inc., which operates prison telephone systems, illegally recorded conversations between inmates and their attorneys without permission.

The complaint states that the purpose of the lawsuit is to stop Securus “from illegally monitoring, recording, maintaining, storing, and disclosing private phone calls by detainees to or from their attorneys without either party’s permission and without warning.”

Securus provides its “Secure Call Platform” to jails and prisons across the U.S., and in 2014 earned over $400 million from charging inmates, and people calling inmates, for the use of its phone system, according to the complaint.

The class action states that through its phone system, Securus is able to “monitor, record, and securely store phone call recordings and make them accessible only to authorized users within the criminal justice system.”

The Securus prison phone privacy class action lawsuit asserts that Securus “promises Plaintiffs, attorneys, and the public that it does not record telephone calls between attorneys and their clients.” However, the class action continues that “in reality, Securus does eavesdrop on, listen in on, record, and store private and confidential attorney-client phone calls without permission of all parties, and Securus shares access and recordings with law enforcement personnel, including prosecutors.”

The complaint argues that the recordings of attorney and client communications without permission is a violation of California privacy laws.

For proof of these illegal recordings, the class action states that in November of 2015 a news article was published on the website The Intercept that reportedly received records from a data breach of over 70 million recorded phone calls from Securus.

“Securus, it turns out, is not so secure,” the lawsuit states.

That data breach allegedly included “57,000 confidential attorney-client phone calls, and counting, as well as other personal information, in not less than 37 states.” The class action contends that the number of confidential attorney-client recorded calls was even under-reported, because they were identified just by searching the listed, public telephone numbers of attorneys.

Plaintiffs Juan Romero and Frank Tiscareno claim that though their calls were not included in that data breach, they both know their confidential calls with their attorneys were recorded by Securus without their permission. Both Romero and Tiscareno state that they were inmates of jails in San Diego County, Calif., they did not receive any notice of calls being recorded, and that their rights were violated by Securus.

The Securus prison phone privacy class action lawsuit seeks to represent a Class of all persons who were in law enforcement custody or in California and their attorneys whose calls were recorded by Securus from 2008 through the present. The class action seeks a court order stopping Securus from illegally recording phone calls between inmates and their attorneys, as well as restitution and damages from Securus.

Romero and Tiscareno are represented by Ronald A. Marron, Alexis Wood, and Kas Gallucci of the Law Offices of Ronald A. Marron, and Robert L. Teel of the Law Office of Robert L. Teel.

The Securus Prison Phone Privacy Class Action Lawsuit is Juan Romero, et al. v. Securus Technologies Inc., Case No. 3:16-cv-01283, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

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15 thoughts onPrison Phone Calls Illegally Recorded, Class Action Says

  1. Angelique D Thomas says:

    My bf been in jail 3yrs n state attorney general was monitoring his calls n I

  2. CHARMAINE LANE says:

    How do you charge someone

    1. Lynetta Jones says:

      Does this go back any
      further back in time

  3. Ky ThompsonSimmons says:

    I was recorded

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