San Diego County Attorney-client calls from jail recorded

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports:

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department unplugged a system this week that records all phone calls from jail inmates after outraged defense lawyers realized their conversations with clients also were being recorded.

A lawyer for the Sheriff's Department said the recordings, which defense lawyers say are privileged conversations protected by law, were made because of an inadvertent glitch in the telephone system.

But defense lawyers said the eavesdropping is a felony under state law and can carry penalties of up to $5,000 per call.

They are also concerned that prosecutors – who have access to the recording system from their desktop computers – could have been privy to conversations, too.