To regulate monitoring of electronic communications between an incarcerated person in a Bureau of Prisons facility and that person's attorney or other legal representative, and for other purposes.
The Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act would require the federal Bureau of Prisons to stop monitoring the contents of electronic communications between incarcerated people and their attorneys or legal representatives. Within 180 days of the law taking effect, the Attorney General must create or modify existing communication systems to automatically exclude attorney-client communications from monitoring, while standard inmate communications would remain subject to oversight. The bill applies to all people in federal custody who have been charged with or convicted of federal crimes, and it protects these communications under attorney-client privilege with limited exceptions. Law enforcement officers could only access retained copies of privileged communications through a court warrant approved by a U.S. Attorney, who would then be required to screen for privileged material and barred from using it in prosecutions or sharing it with prosecutors. Courts would have the authority to suppress any evidence obtained through unauthorized access to these protected communications.
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