Regardless of how many times I say this, some people never listen. ALL CALLS FROM EVERY JAIL ARE RECORDED. Even the calls to your lawyer. Allegedly, no one listens to the calls to your lawyer, however, I do not believe that is the case. They can't use the information against you, but they can listen to the calls, regardless of how unethical that may be. (HMMM, a government that's unethical - imagine that)
Last week in the St. Petersburg Times there was an article about a lawyer who, during a routine discovery request asked for the tape recorded calls from the jail. He was surprised to learn his calls were recorded on that tape as well. The only thing surprising about that to me, is that the State or the jail didn't redact (erase) his calls before they gave him the tape. (See also editorial from Oct. 3, 2009)
As a prosecutor in the Pinellas County State Attorney's Office, I often listened to the inmates calls from the jail, and was often able to hear confessions, or admissions to other crimes. A few years after I left, the prosecutors got access to the calls easily through a computer program accessible from their desks. Once again, the State Attorney's Office as well as jail employees listen to the calls. Trust me.
Recently, the Pasco County Jail revamped it's taping (monitoring) system. When you are booked in, they give you a pin number which is voice activated. Why do you think they did that? So, they knew for sure, who was calling and which numbers they were dialing to. Big brother watches - and the Florida and the US Supreme Court agree that you have no expectation of privacy in jail.
