For Immediate Release
S.T.O.P. Report Examines Harms of Prison Call Surveillance, Details Policy Recommendations
(New York, NY, 5/28/26) - Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy and civil rights group, released This Call Will Be Recorded, Monitored, and Used Against You: The Harms of Prison Call Surveillance, a report detailing how the mass recording and automated analysis of jail and prison calls is built to fail incarcerated people by violating the right to a fair trial and by exposing incarcerated people and their loved ones to bogus criminal and gang accusations. The report documents how automated speaker recognition tools can misidentify speakers and how automated transcription tools are prone to misunderstand them, especially Black and Latino men. As New York City prepares to renew its phone service and surveillance contract with prison telecom Securus, the report recommends ending the blanket recording of jail calls and returning to a warrant requirement; ending no-bid contracts with problematic telecom vendors; and placing firm, enforceable requirements on telecom vendors to avoid needless biometric data collection, data breaches, and violations of sanctuary laws and other municipal limits on data sharing.
SEE: S.T.O.P. Report – This Call Will Be Recorded, Monitored, and Used Against You: The Harms of Prison Call Surveillance
https://www.stopspying.org/prison-call-surveillance
StateScoop - Despite AI call-monitoring concerns, NYC corrections plans to renew $23M telecom contract
https://statescoop.com/despite-ai-call-monitoring-concerns-nyc-corrections-plans-to-renew-23m-telecom-contract/
“Jails treat incarcerated people as though they’ve forfeited any entitlement to privacy on the phone, and violate basic rights as a result,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Research Director Eleni Manis. “On top of that, faulty automated tools analyze every call, putting Black and Latino men at a disproportionate risk of being misunderstood and wrongly investigated or charged.”
“Jail call surveillance, illegitimate from its inception, has now evolved unchecked into a sprawling system of biometric collection, AI analysis, and rampant data sharing that threatens the constitutional right to counsel and the privacy of everyone,” said Sergio De La Pava, legal director of New York County Defender Services. “The mindless use of these flawed automated tools to analyze intimate calls creates a grave risk of misidentifications and unlawful intrusions into privileged communications. And as often seems the case, disproportionate harm will likely fall on the Black and Latino communities that are already overpoliced and over-surveilled.”
“Through its contract with Securus, NYC hands over the personal data of thousands of New Yorkers to a company with a track record of exploiting that data far beyond any legitimate purpose: from recording legal phone calls to using caller data to train artificial intelligence,” said Talia Kamran, Staff Attorney with Brooklyn Defenders’ Seizure and Surveillance Defense Project. “Given that the majority of people incarcerated at Rikers are people of color, the burden of collection and exposure falls disproportionately on Black and brown families who are trying to stay connected during a loved one's incarceration. Public defenders and advocates are calling on our local government to cancel this harmful contract and to pass the End Correctional Community Surveillance Act (ECCoS) Act to ban this invasive and exploitative surveillance practice altogether.”
Key Findings Include:
- Jails and prisons have long recorded incarcerated people’s calls, but limited surveillance once spared most attorney-client conversations. Today’s mass surveillance sweeps them in routinely and inevitably, crippling incarcerated people’s ability to mount a defense.
- Automated speaker recognition tools can misidentify who is on the line. Automated speech-to-text tools can misunderstand what’s said in jail calls, especially for Black and Latino speakers. The faulty record that results can be used against anyone on a call.
- Keyword flagging strips callers’ words of context, so innocent speech can read as evidence of criminal activity. Adding AI doesn’t fix the problem and could manufacture false accusations at scale.
- Data-sharing networks supply call data to law enforcement agencies across the nation, including ICE. Sanctuary jurisdictions like New York City cannot fully shield their residents.
Earlier this month, S.T.O.P. condemned the Mamdani administration’s plan to renew its contract with Securus Technologies on Rikers Island; the release cited a public comment by Brooklyn Defender Services that Securus undermines New York City sanctuary laws because of its integration with AI data analytics firm Palantir, which actively partners with ICE. In 2020, S.T.O.P. also released Listening Beyond the Bars: New York's Artificial Intelligence Surveillance of Prisoners and their Loved Ones, a report on the civil rights impact of New York City’s contract with Securus.
SEE: Release - S.T.O.P. Condemns Renewal of Rikers AI Phone Surveillance Contract
https://www.stopspying.org/content-input/stop-condemns-renewal-of-rikers-ai-phone-surveillance-contract?rq=Securus
Report - Listening Beyond the Bars: New York's Artificial Intelligence Surveillance of Prisoners and their Loved Ones
https://www.stopspying.org/listening-beyond-the-bars
City Limits - NYC Jails Criminalize Mail Correspondence, Just In Time For the Holidays
https://citylimits.org/opinion-nyc-jails-criminalize-mail-correspondence-just-in-time-for-the-holidays/
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider. S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates for privacy, fighting excessive local and state-level surveillance. Our work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on Muslim Americans, immigrants, and communities of color.
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