The government spies on incarcerated citizens who use illegal cellphones in correctional facilities. Those aren’t the only people government officials spy on. They are also listening to and tracking free citizens, according to Criminal Legal News (CLN).
The technology used is called a cell-site simulator, also called a “stingray.” This device directs a cellphone to connect to it instead of a cell tower.
“Police operating the devices can track the location of all connected cellphones within a certain radius, and also can potentially intercept metadata about calls,”CLN reported. This includes call duration, the number that was called, text messages, information on data usage such as browser information, and the content of calls. “All of this takes place unbeknownst to users whose cellphones have been hijacked.”
According to CLN, as of 2016, there were 23 states and the District of Columbia with law enforcement agencies that were using cell-site simulators. It also stated that the Cato Institute reported federal agencies using stingray technology, including the FBI, ATF, ICE, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, NSA, DHS and the IRS.
“Concerns over their use have been met with silence from police and prosecutors,”CLN reported. “In some cases, prosecutors have gone so far as to dismiss criminal charges to avoid disclosing any information about stingray use.”
It was reported that the FBI is the agency that coordinates the sale and use of stingray technology; one of the requirements for local law enforcement to use the technology is to accept a comprehensive nondisclosure agreement (NDA).
“The (NDA) requires police and prosecutors to refuse to hand over information about stingray technology or usage to defense attorneys and judges alike,”CLN reported, adding that the device can “hijack a cellphone and force it to report in to the government, all while it sits quietly in an unsuspecting user’s pocket.”
According to CLN, law enforcement agencies will sometimes deny the existence of an NDA.
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees people the right to “be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.”
“Cell-site simulators are an example of how new technology can be leveraged to skirt constitutional limitations on the power of the police,”CLN said, adding there are a lot of law enforcement agencies that do not have a policy on officers use of this technology.
CLN reported, however, that Harvard Law School published in its July 2016 issue of National Security Journal that law enforcement in the U.S. has for a long time used stingrays to run roughshod over the Fourth Amendment.
“This is because law enforcement agencies and device manufactures have gone to great lengths to keep information about stingray capabilities, and use, secret,”CLN reported.
According to CLN, a 2016 report by The Daily Dot revealed cell-site simulators were developed more than 20 years ago by the Harris Corporation, the Pentagon and federal intelligence agencies. It was used for military technology.
The website USASpending.gov, according to CLN, reported Harris Corporation receiving $3.6 million in federal funding; in 2017, it had more than 2,000 federal contracts.
The American Civil Liberties Union, according to CLN, has created a list of about 300 cases that it believes used stingray technology.
“The real concern is that local law enforcement agencies are using these devices to investigate all kinds of crimes, often without going through the traditional procedures required prior to a search, namely seeking a warrant,” CLN said.
The CLN article said, “Police technology will continue to become more expansive and powerful, and the longer it takes legislatures and courts to produce a legal framework capable of keeping up with technology and ensuring that constitutional rights are protected, the more threatening the surveillance state will become.”
In a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court case, Riley v. California, Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “Legislatures, elected by the people, are in a better position than we are to assess and respond to the changes that have already occurred and those that almost certainly will take place in the future.”
Plea bargain challenges are not barred to defendant
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that plea bargains do not prohibit defendants from challenging the constitutionality of their convictions.
The decision held that even though a guilty plea waives a defendant’s right to appeal their case or challenge the sentence, it does not waive their right to question the state’s right to charge them in the first place.
Criminal Legal News reported the case as Class v. United States (2018).
“There are over 4,800 legal restrictions facing people with convictions after sentence completion…73% of these legal barriers are permanent.” “SAFE AND SOUND: …” by Californians For Safety and Justice Nov. 2017
The case involved Rodney Class, who had pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm. He appealed his conviction, but was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit because of his plea, the report said. He claimed his conviction was unconstitutional because it violated the 2nd Amendment.
His appeal was upheld 6-3 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“64% of California’s jail population is awaiting trial or sentencing as of December 2016.” Most remain in pretrial custody because they cannot afford bail. Jail Profile Survey, http://www.bscc.ca.gov/
The relevant question before the court was “[d]oes a guilty plea bar a criminal defendant from later appealing his conviction on grounds that the statute of his conviction violates the Constitution?” wrote Justice Stephen Breyer, for the court.
The court analysis was based on 50 years of prior cases relating to plea bargains and recognized that not all guilty plea challenges are within its jurisdiction. But, the justices agreed, in some instances they are.
“In 1935 the Supreme Court declared that a prosecutors job is more than merely winning every case by racking up convictions; it also included seeing that justice is done.” “Pressing Pause on Marijuana Convictions” NYT Opinion July 30, 2018
The court explained that class action claims did not focus on “case-related constitutional defects that occurred prior to the entry of the guilty plea. They could not, for example, have been ‘cured’ through a new indictment by a properly selected grand jury.”
Their decision rested on the fact that class was not challenging the fact that he did the deed, but instead disputing the right of the government to “constitutionally prosecute” him for it.
https://sanquentinnews.com/virtual-reality-and-the-solitary-prison-experience/
https://sanquentinnews.com/prosecutors-have-great-power-over-criminal-cases/
News Briefs October 2017
Phoenix, Arizona — A judge has warned the state’s top corrections officials that they could be held in civil contempt of court and could face fines for repeatedly falling short in improving health care for inmates, reports the Mohave Daily News. The order comes as the judge and attorneys for prisoners have complained that prison officials were slow in making the improvements they promised three years ago when settling a class-action lawsuit that alleged inmates were getting poor health care.
Arizona — A group of Arizona State University (ASU) students, Mission Team Seven from ASU’s Next Generation Service Corps (https://psa.asu.edu/nextgeneration-service-corps) put on a panel discussion entitled “Modern Day Slavery” in collaboration with Remnant R.E.A.C.H (https://www.remnantreach.org/), a nonprofit focused on supporting communities in south Phoenix, at the Beus Center for Law and Society on ASU’s downtown Phoenix campus the night of Sept. 28. The panel discussed the varying elements of the mass incarceration, race, youth education, foster care, employment and homelessness, reports The State Press.
Florida — One of the largest prison populations in the U.S. is found in Florida. As of 2016, the state has incarcerated 99,000 people (http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/). The highest number was in 2011 with roughly 102,300 people incarcerated. New research from the Urban Institute (http://apps.urban.org/features/long-prison-terms/intro.html) shows long prison sentences are part of the reason for the increase of incarcerated individuals, not just rates of incarceration. The number of people serving 10 or more years has tripled since 1996. The average prison sentence has grown—from four years to 5.4 years. A larger increase is in sentences for violent offenses—from 5.1 to 7.6 years.
Florida — State lawmakers are considering a bill that would require the consideration of the needs of inmates older than 50 years of age, reports Forgottenmajority.net. Prison officials would have to adopt health care standards for that population; provide for a supervised conditional elderly release program; provide criteria for program eligibility; authorize arrest of inmate who has been released under supervised conditional elderly release program; defines “elderly and infirm inmate;” permits inmates 65 and over to serve less than 85 percent of their sentences if they receive certain forms of release and requires them to serve a lower minimum percentage of their sentences; expands eligibility for conditional medical release to include elderly and infirm inmates.
Huntsville, Texas — Robert Pruett was executed by lethal injection Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017 for the death of a corrections officer at a South Texas prison in December 1999, the Houston Chronicle reports.
Iowa — School officials are using six feet by six feet boxes, called “seclusion enclosures” as a means to discipline or punish unruly elementary and secondary school children, the Huffington Post reports. The pine boxes have little light or ventilation. Parents aren’t asked for their permission for their use.
Nevada — The shortage of prison beds has prompted prison officials to send 200 inmates to a private prison in Eloy, Arizona. The state will pay CoreCivic Inc., formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America, $9.2 million as a part of a two-year deal, The Republic reports. The transfers are scheduled to begin in November, a prisons spokesperson said.
Maryland — Nearly 500 incarcerated people who are serving time under mandatory minimum sentences as repeat drug dealers may ask a judge to shorten their time under a package of criminal justice reforms approved by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly last year and signed by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, reports the Baltimore Sun.