How we reported on undercover police operations in California jails

A controversial police tactic is facing scrutiny in California courts. According to CalMatters, in what's known as a Perkins operation, undercover officers pose as inmates to elicit confessions from suspects—even after those suspects have invoked their right to remain silent. The California Supreme Court has begun accepting petitions from at least nine defendants who claim these operations violated their Fifth Amendment rights. In one case, statements made to an undercover operative became the centerpiece of the prosecution's case, resulting in a forty-five-year-to-life sentence. Legal experts question whether circumventing Miranda protections this way crosses into coercion.

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