Brooklyn Defender Services files suit against NYC Department of Correction over phone call surveillance

April 19, 2024 Robert Abruzzese, Courthouse Editor

A view of the Queens Detention Center, one of several city jails where Brooklyn Defender Services has filed a lawsuit against the NYC Department of Correction, alleging that an extensive phone call surveillance system infringes on the privacy and constitutional rights of incarcerated individuals. Photo courtesy of Queens Eagle

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Brooklyn Defender Services, alongside the Bronx Defenders and New York County Defender Services, has filed a class-action lawsuit against the New York City Department of Correction (DOC), alleging unlawful mass surveillance of phone calls within city jails.

The lawsuit, supported by legal firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, claims that the DOC has been engaging in extensive monitoring and recording of calls made by incarcerated individuals, infringing on their privacy and constitutional rights.

The legal action highlights that the DOC, through its contractor Securus Technologies, has recorded millions of phone conversations without proper consent, capturing sensitive personal, biometric and financial data from both inmates and their contacts outside the jail.

This practice reportedly includes the recording of privileged conversations between defendants and their attorneys, which were then unlawfully shared with law enforcement agencies.

“In the guise of a phone service system, the Department of Correction has constructed a full-scale domestic spying program with the help of Securus,” said Elizabeth Daniel Vasquez, director of Brooklyn Defenders’ Science and Surveillance Project. “Collecting, storing and sharing deeply personal, biometric and financial information from New Yorkers, DOC and Securus unlawfully expose countless people to government surveillance on the sole basis of their being detained pretrial or wanting to speak with a loved one who is in DOC custody.”  

Vasquez emphasized the disproportionate impact of the surveillance on Black and Brown communities, describing the database as a tool that invasively collects and stores intimate personal details.

The lawsuit seeks an immediate end to the universal recording of phone calls and the termination of DOC’s contract with Securus. It also calls for a return to the pre-2008 policy requiring a warrant for monitoring jail calls, which was changed by a Board of Correction rule that allowed for broader surveillance under “legally sufficient notice.”

The complaint comes after revelations that thousands of attorney-client privileged calls were improperly recorded, with at least one individual reporting that 43 of his confidential calls were accessed by prosecutors, according to the Daily News.

The DOC has defended the surveillance as a critical safety tool, with spokesman Frank Dwyer stating, “Monitoring of phone calls is essential for the safety of all staff and every person in custody.” However, the plaintiffs argue that the surveillance system has overreached, operating with little regulation and transparency.