Calls From the Inside

It’s an iconic line in any crime story: when a suspect is arrested and gets to make one call. In reality, once a person enters the criminal justice system, there are multiple opportunities to make calls while awaiting trial. The vast majority of those calls are recorded. An admission, a threat, a slip of the tongue, a bribe — it’s all on tape and the suspect knows it, but this doesn’t always prevent people from talking and talking. Jailhouse phone calls are used to frame the narrative of murder investigations steeped in mystery.