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Jail accused of recording inmates' calls to attorneys

PITTSBURGH — The federal public defender in Pittsburgh said the Allegheny County Jail recorded telephone calls between defense attorneys and their clients and sometimes gave them to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Federal Public Defender Lisa Freeland said she is "incensed." She said her office received an e-mail that included communications between an assistant U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh and a federal medical center in Massachusetts

The American Civil Liberties Union scheduled a meeting with the county solicitor's office for Tuesday morning on the issue.

Under jail policy, all outgoing calls are recorded — except those to inmates' lawyers — and prosecutors routinely seek those recordings. County jail officials said a revamping of the phone system might have led to inadvertent taping of some calls between inmates and their lawyers, but if that happened, it was inadvertent.

U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said her office has never requested any communications between a defendant and attorney and didn't review any that it might have received.

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