Letter Objecting to Attorney Call Rule

Florida Justice Institute, along with other civil rights organizations and individual lawyers, are urging the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) to reject proposed revisions to a rule that would limit the ability of attorneys to arrange calls with incarcerated people.  The changes appear to state that an attorney may only arrange a private, unmonitored telephone call with an incarcerated person “with whom the attorney has established an attorney-client relationship,” and further state that “[a]ttorneys shall not be permitted to make prior arrangements for prospective inmate clients to receive a private telephone call from the attorney on an unmonitored telephone.”  This revision will make it more difficult for incarcerated people to learn about and vindicate their rights, will disrupt decades of settled practice during which attorneys have been permitted to arrange private calls with incarcerated people without having previously established an attorney-client relationship, and raises constitutional concerns.