Broward Sheriff's Office

A class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of inmates alleging the agency illegally recorded privileged attorney client conversations at the Broward county jail. The lawsuit claims the Sheriff's Office knowingly and illegally electronically recorded attorney client privileged communications initiated by its inmates held at its detention facilities, thus hindering or completely destroying the inmates' right to effective counsel and their ability to communicate with their counsel with candor. Broward Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Ken Jenne and T-Netix Telecommunications Services, Inc. are named as the defendants. The office installed an advanced recording system to listen in on inmate phone conversations, including those by suspects who were awaiting trial and had not been convicted. The Sheriff's Office set up a database of attorney phone numbers so that the system would automatically shut down when the inmate called their attorney, but not all the numbers were entered when the system started up and continued for two weeks.