Each housing unit at the MDC had a "Public Defender’s phone," a telephone with what the phone companies call "direct-connect" service: when an inmate picked up the handset, he would be connected directly to the Federal Public Defender’s Office. I knew these were the only phones available to prisoners that weren’t subject to monitoring—because of attorney-client privilege. But they were also programmed at the phone company switch so that they couldn’t be used for incoming calls ("deny terminate," in telco lingo), and couldn’t connect to any numbers other than the main telephone number at the Public Defender’s Office. I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.