“ This call originates from an inmate correctional facility and is subject to monitoring and recording .” The Florida Department of Corrections currently has approximately 80,000 incarcerated inmates . 1 The Florida Administrative Code mandates that all inmate calls , except those placed to attorneys under proper procedures , and to foreign consulates , shall be subject to monitoring and recording . 2
Notice to all Participants to the Communication
All monitored calls shall contain a prompt which clearly identifies the call as coming from a Florida Department of Corrections institution and advises that the call is subject to being monitored and recorded by the Department of Corrections . 3 Likewise , signs are required to be posted on or near each phone which state that calls are subject to being monitored or recorded . 4
Additionally , it is standard practice for defense counsel to
itisnowmoreimportantthanever toadviseclients , andtheir families , thatcallswhile incarceratedarenotsimplysubject torecordingandmonitoring , but alsotoreal-timeanalysisand investigationconductedby artificialintelligencesoftware .
“ thiScaLLiSSuBJecttoMonitoring , recorDing ( anDanaLYSiSBYa . i .)”
Criminal law Section Chairs : JustinPetredis – TheLawOfficesofJustinPetredis & DiegoPestana – TheSuarezLawFirmadvise incarcerated clients , and their families , that communications are recorded and monitored . I advise clients to imagine law enforcement , the prosecutor , judge , and jury are all listening in on their jail calls . Despite warnings , that imagined scenario still manages to manifest itself in certain cases . When jail recordings are introduced as evidence , they typically include discussion of criminal activity , and even candid confessions .
Artificial Intelligence
As reported in several media outlets , earlier this year the Florida Department of Corrections contracted with LeoTech , a company that produced a patented artificial intelligence software platform named Verus . According to the LeoTech website , Verus provides continuous real-time monitoring of communications and enables users to search “ through millions of transcripts at sub-second speeds .” 5 The A . I . software provides for searches by keyword , customizable alerts , the ability to investigate and uncover links and connections amongst the data collected , and even the ability to identify slang and coded lexical categories , terms , and synonyms .
Needle in a Haystack
Although it has been standard practice to record jail calls , the ability to effectively examine the content has been limited by the labor and costs required . Widespread examination would be equivalent of looking for a needle in a haystack . Effective mass-investigation of the communications of 80,000 inmates would not be economical or feasible without A . I . It has been reported that the contract with LeoTech enables prisons to record and scan up to 50 million minutes of
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