Current and former Santa Barbara County Jail inmates are alleging that their privileged legal mail was opened and searched.
In a handwritten lawsuit filed on Aug. 22 in federal court, current inmate Taidje Rayburn Robinson alleges that letters between him and his attorney, Richard Diaz at California Disability Rights, were opened and searched on several occasions between May 30 and July 19.
Each time, Robinson filed a grievance with the Sheriff’s Office, according to the lawsuit.
“I was told the information exchanged between us was considered attorney-client privilege,” Robinson wrote in the lawsuit. “My legal mail continues to be opened and searched by custody deputies.”
A response to Robinson’s grievance dated June 11 states that all mail would be processed and searched if the envelope wasn’t specifically marked “confidential-attorney/client.”
While Diaz—who is not representing Robinson in this case—wouldn’t confirm if he’s aware that his client’s mail is being opened, he said that all correspondence between an attorney and his or her client is generally considered privileged.
Former inmate Sterling Ranft, who recently finished a six-month stint in county jail, told the Sun that his legal mail was opened before it was delivered to him.
Although Kelly Hoover, public information officer for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, said the Sheriff’s Office wasn’t served with notice of the lawsuit and comment, she did provide the Sun with a copy of the county’s inmate mail guidelines.
In them it states that “mail from private attorneys must properly identify the involved attorney’s name and title on the outside of the envelope” and that “all privileged mail must be clearly marked ‘privileged’ on the outside of the envelope.”
Robinson stated that his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated and is seeking an injunction against the defendants—which include Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown, the county of Santa Barbara, and the Sheriff’s Office—to stop them from opening his mail.
He also seeks compensatory and punitive damages, which are not listed in the lawsuit.
This article appears in Sep 8-15, 2016.
