Opinion ID: 1351145
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Jailhouse tape recordings

Text: The police recorded various conversations between defendant and his visitors while defendant was in jail. Defendant asserts on various grounds that these recordings were illegally obtained and used against him at trial. a. Statutory-right-to-privacy claim. More than a year after the recordings were made in this case, we decided De Lancie v. Superior Court (1982) 31 Cal.3d 865 [183 Cal. Rptr. 866, 647 P.2d 142]. Relying on statutory grounds, we held for the first time that the police may not monitor the conversations of pretrial detainees for the sole purpose of discovering information to use against them at trial. ( Id., at pp. 867-868.) We explained, however, that the police may monitor conversations to the extent necessary to insure the security of the prison and the protection of the public. ( Id., at p. 868.) We subsequently held in Donaldson v. Superior Court (1983) 35 Cal.3d 24 [196 Cal. Rptr. 704, 672 P.2d 110], that De Lancie was not retroactive, and did not require exclusion of evidence obtained before that decision was filed. (35 Cal.3d at p. 39.) (13) Defendant asserts Donaldson was wrongly decided and we should apply De Lancie retroactively, and that the recordings here were not necessary to jailhouse security and should have been suppressed. We disagree on both counts. First, defendant offers no compelling reason to depart from our retroactivity analysis in Donaldson v. Superior Court, supra, 35 Cal.3d 24. Griffith v. Kentucky (1987) 479 U.S. 314 [93 L.Ed.2d 649, 107 S.Ct. 708] notwithstanding, we have previously held that for questions of retroactivity concerning matters of state law we adhere to the test employed in Donaldson. ( People v. Carrera, supra, 49 Cal.3d 291, 326-328.) In any event, and without belaboring the point, the record amply establishes that defendant was a major security risk while awaiting trial, that he made various plans to escape, and thus the recordings would have been permissible even under De Lancie, supra, 31 Cal.3d 865, to assist in jailhouse security. b. Fifth Amendment claim. (14) Defendant suggests the recordings violated his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent in the face of custodial interrogation. ( Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 [16 L.Ed.2d 694, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 10 A.L.R.3d 974].) As the People observe, defendant's sole authority for this view has been reversed by the high court (see Arizona v. Mauro (1987) 481 U.S. 520, 530 [95 L.Ed.2d 458, 107 S.Ct. 1931]). Accordingly, and because it is clear that defendant's conversations with his own visitors are not the constitutional equivalent of police interrogation, we reject the claim. (See, e.g., People v. Williams (1988) 44 Cal.3d 1127, 1140-1141 [245 Cal. Rptr. 635, 751 P.2d 901] [rejecting same claim even as to information obtained by undercover inmate agent].) c. Sixth Amendment claim. (15) Defendant insists the recordings were obtained in violation of his right to counsel. He cites familiar high court cases dealing with use of government informants to elicit incriminating information from a defendant in violation of his right to counsel (e.g., Kuhlmann v. Wilson (1986) 477 U.S. 432 [91 L.Ed.2d 364, 106 S.Ct. 2616]), but fails to recognize that none of his visitors was a government agent sent in to elicit information from defendant. We reject this claim as well (see, e.g., Williams, supra, 44 Cal.3d at pp. 1141-1142). d. Improper prosecutorial discovery. (16) Finally, defendant cites Prudhomme v. Superior Court (1970) 2 Cal.3d 320 [85 Cal. Rptr. 129, 466 P.2d 673], for the proposition that the recordings constituted improper prosecutorial discovery in violation of his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Prudhomme and its progeny, however, apply to formal discovery orders in favor of the prosecution. Here there was no such order; nor were defendant's statements to his visitors compelled. We reject the claim.