San Francisco sheriff's office recorded confidential jail calls and shared with prosecutors

The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office acknowledged an administrative failure that caused over a dozen confidential jail phone calls between people awaiting trial and their lawyers to be recorded in the last two years, Mission Local reported.

These recordings were then improperly shared with prosecutors, despite a legal prohibition against recording conversations between defendants and their attorneys. The sheriff’s department runs county jails and typically records nearly all inmate calls, often providing these to district attorney staff for case prosecution.

The sheriff’s office stated that there is a process intended to prevent attorney-client calls from being recorded, but this process broke down, resulting in at least 20 such calls being recorded and given to prosecutors, according to the public defender’s office.

The issue came to light when a prosecutor inadvertently emailed a public defender, revealing that confidential calls were in the hands of the prosecution. The sheriff’s department said it has taken steps to prevent this from happening again.

The public defender’s office emphasized the seriousness of the breach, stating, “You cannot un-ring that bell,” highlighting the lasting impact of the error on defendants’ rights.