P.R. Laws tit. 4, § 1631
(a) The Constitution of Puerto Rico empowers the Legislative Assembly to approve laws that protect the life, health, and wellbeing of the people.
(b) The practice of introducing personal telecommunications equipment, including cellular phones, into penal and juvenile facilities has proliferated, and its frequent use to make or coordinate illegal activities within the facilities has been detected.
(c) This activity jeopardizes the wellbeing of the people and potentially their lives, in addition to impairing the constitutional mandate for rehabilitation.
(d) To restrict the unauthorized use of telecommunications equipment in penal and juvenile facilities in Puerto Rico is vested with a high public interest in order to prevent criminal activity inside such facilities.
(e) The free and unrestricted use of telecommunications media, including cellular phones, is one of the privileges of law-abiding citizens that is revoked when a person is imprisoned for violating the social contract.
(f) It is also appropriate to restrict communications that may interfere with the rehabilitation process, which may be thwarted by contact with criminal activity.
(g) The interception of a telephone communications without the consent of the parties is prohibited, but under current law it is possible to monitor a telephone communication if the parties involved are advised of the fact and give their consent.
(h) With the exception of attorney-client privileged communication, the disciplinary order of the penal or juvenile facility may require that inmates’ communications be conditioned, restricted, or monitored, insofar as they are so notified.
History —Feb. 18, 2011, No. 15, § 1.