NACDL - NACDL v. Federal Bureau of Prisons and Department of Justice

There are more than 128,000 individuals in federal custody held in BOP facilities. To send email, these individuals must use a BOP system known as TRULINCS. This system requires them to acknowledge that their communications, including messages to or from their attorneys, will be monitored and not treated as privileged. The federal government can—and has—used emails sent between individuals in federal prisons and their attorneys against those individuals in court. While courts have ruled that the government is barred by the Constitution from reading the legal postal mail of individuals in federal prisons, courts have not definitively resolved this question for email, and the government has taken the position that it is entitled to read these individuals’ legal email.

In order to learn more about BOP's and DOJ's policies and practices, and to inform the critically important policy discussions, NACDL submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the BOP and to multiple other DOJ components seeking the release of records concerning the federal government’s collection and monitoring of email communications between individuals in federal prisons and their attorneys, copies of which requests are annexed as Exhibits A, B, and C to NACDL’s Second Amended Complaint for Injunctive Relief, filed on August 7, 2020.

Catherine Crump, Director of UC Berkeley’s Samuelson Clinic for Law, Technology, & Public Policy is lead counsel in this matter, and Megan Graham, Clinical Supervising Attorney at the Samuelson Clinic, is serving as co-counsel. NACDL Past President Barry J. Pollack, a partner at Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner & Sauber LLP, is also serving as counsel. Berkeley Law students Diane Aguirre-Dominguez, Nomi Conway, and Ernan Kiselica participated in preparation of the lawsuit.

Records of Particular Interest

EOUSA Policy Memo (May 4, 2009)
Email from the Northern District of Illinois (August 24, 2010)
Email Regarding the Northern District of Illinois' Use of BOP Filtering (February 7, 2012)
Federal Detention Center, Honolulu's TRULINCS Policies (October 14, 2015)
Emails from the Central District of California (November 3, 2015)
Email Explaining BOP's Filter (April 27, 2017)
Memo Regarding BOP's Filter for Specific Emails (June 20, 2017)
Letter from BOP to Judge Sullivan (June 22, 2017)
Various Emails Regarding Judge Sullivan's Letter (June 22, 2017)
Emails Regarding the Southern District of New York's Use of BOP Filtering (October 6, 2017)
Letter Regarding the Eastern District of New York's Use of Filtering (October 17, 2017)
District of Kansas Policy (December 2018)
Eastern District of Kentucky's Policy on Filter Teams (December 21, 2018)
Letter Regarding the Western District of Washington's Policy (March 20, 2020)
Emails Regarding the Western District of Pennsylvania's Policy (October 28, 2020)
Emails Regarding the District of Puerto Rico's Policy (October 28, 2020)

BOP Request

BOP's March 21, 2019 Production: Cover Letter, Production
BOP's April 30, 2019 Production: Cover Letter, Production
BOP's May 29, 2019 Production: Cover Letter, Production
BOP's July 2, 2019 Production: Cover Letter, Production
BOP's August 1, 2019 Production: Cover Letter, Production
BOP's September 4, 2019 Production: Cover Letter, Production
BOP's May 19, 2020 Production: Cover Letter, Production
BOP's August 31, 2020 Production: Cover Letter, Production

Main Justice Request

Office of Legal Counsel's March 22, 2019 Final Response: Cover Letter
Office of Information Policy's May 23, 2019 Final Response: Cover Letter
EOUSA's June 19, 2019 Production: Cover Letter
Criminal Division's August 30, 2019 Production: Cover Letter, Production
BOP's September 16, 2019 Production: Cover Letter, Production
BOP's September 24, 2019 Production: Cover Letter, Production
Criminal Division's September 26, 2019 Production: Cover Letter, Production
EOUSA's October 10, 2019 Production: Cover Letter, Production
EOUSA's October 15, 2019 Production: Cover Letter, Production
BOP's November 5, 2019 Production: Cover Letter, Production
EOUSA's November 8, 2019 Production: Cover Letter
Criminal Division's December 31, 2019 Production: Cover Letter
FBI's January 8, 2020 Production: Cover Letter, Production

EOUSA Request

EOUSA's June 12, 2019 Production: Cover Letter, Production
EOUSA's September 4, 2020 Production: Cover Letter (District of Colorado)
EOUSA's September 10, 2020 Production: Cover Letter (Central District of California), Cover Letter (Southern District of California)
EOUSA's September 11, 2020 Production: Cover Letter (District of Puerto Rico)
EOUSA's September 15, 2020 Production: Cover Letter (Middle District of Florida), Cover Letter (Southern District of Texas and Southern District of California), Production (Southern District of Texas and Southern District of California)
EOUSA's September 29, 2020 Production: Cover Letter (Southern District of California), Production (Southern District of California)
EOUSA's September 30, 2020 Production: Cover Letter #12 (Federal Bureau of Prisons), Production #12 (Federal Bureau of Prisons), Cover Letter #13 (Eastern District of Pennsylvania), Production #13 (Eastern District of Pennsylvania)
EOUSA's October 1, 2020 Production: Cover Letter #14 (Southern District of New York), Production #14 (Southern District of New York), Cover Letter #15 (Southern District of New York), Production #15 (Southern District of New York)
EOUSA's October 9, 2020 Production: Cover Letter (Eastern District of New York), Cover Letter (Eastern District of Michigan), Production (Eastern District of New York)
EOUSA's October 13, 2020 Production: Cover Letter (Western District of Pennsylvania), Production (Western District of Pennsylvania)
EOUSA's October 20, 2020 Production: Cover Letter (District of Arizona)
EOUSA's October 21, 2020 Production: Cover Letter (Northern District of Illinois), Production (Northern District of Illinois
EOUSA's October 22, 2020 Production: Cover Letter (Eastern District of New York), Production (Eastern District of New York)
EOUSA's October 27, 2020 Production: Cover Letter (Southern District of Florida), Production (Southern District of Florida)
EOUSA's October 28, 2020 Production: Production #23 (District of Puerto Rico), Production #24 (Western District of Pennsylvania)
EOUSA's November 20, 2020 Production: Production (Western District of Washington)
EOUSA's December 18, 2020 Production: Production (Eastern District of New York)