Provides for the admissibility of recordings and logs of inmate calls made by the department of correction of the city of New York, as business records

BILL NUMBER:S3839

Title of bill

An act to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to the admissibility as business records of recordings and logs made by the department of correction of the city of New York of inmate telephone calls

Summary of provisions

Section one of this bill amends Rule 4518 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules by adding a new subdivision (h) to provide that New York City Department of Correction (DOC) recordings of inmate telephone calls and logs containing identifying information about the calls are admissible in evidence as business records without further need for foundation testimony. The bill requires a certification or authentication of the records. The party seeking to introduce the records into evidence would have to provide reasonable written notice to an adverse party and make the records and the certification or authentication available for inspection.

Section two is the effective date.

Reasons for support

It is current practice for The New York City Department of Correction (DOC) to record telephone calls made by Inmates as part of its regular course of business. DOC provides notice to all people on the call and does not record inmate conversations with their attorney or other privileged communications. Computer generated logs for these calls contain identifying information about the call, including the time of call, the telephone number of origin, the telephone number called, the inmate identification number used to make the call, and the name of the inmate associated with that identification number. These are then subject to subpoenas requesting copies of these phone calls and directing DOC representatives to appear and testify at court proceedings to authenticate the recordings.

DOC receives approximately 200 requests per week from District Attorneys and other parties for recordings of inmate telephone calls and the corresponding logs. Current law requires that these recordings and logs be authenticated with in-court testimony before they are admitted into evidence, causing DOC to send an employee to court to provide authentication testimony which, depending on court schedules, can cause the employee to spend hours or even an entire day waiting to testify in what turns out to be a routine process of authentication.

This proposal seeks the ability to authenticate recorded inmate phone calls as a business record in writing, provided it bears a certification by an appropriate DOC representative, as opposed to sending a representative to appear and authenticate the record in person and diverting already scarce department employee time and resources. Codifying these recordings and logs as admissible under the business record exception is appropriate because the records are made by DOC in the regular course of business and similar allowance is permissible by law for other business records such as hospital bills. Nothing in this proposal would preclude the court from requesting the appropriate DOC representative from being called to appear and authenticate the record in person, it would simply allow for the

written authentication as a business record. The staff and resources currently dedicated to authenticating these records in court could then be better utilized on other pressing legal matters affecting DOC and on efficiently responding to the parties' requests for records.

Accordingly, the Mayor urges the earliest possible favorable consideration of this proposal by the Legislature.

Legislative history

2014: S.2485 Referred to Judiciary/A.6961 Referred to Codes.

Effective date

Immediately.