CA Facebooking Behind Bars
With the continued popularity of social media and networking sites like Facebook, many people use these sites as one of their main forms of communication. That includes prison inmates.
According to Dana Toyama, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, over the last month and a half, the CDCR in partnership with Facebook has shut down the profile pages of 45 inmates they found were actively using the networking site. Report by Daily Press.
“We’re finding that inmates who have (smuggled) cell phones — especially smart phones — can access the Internet and can get onto their profiles,” she said.
According to CDCR rules and regulations, inmates are not allowed access to the World Wide Web, she said, but they are finding ways around it. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s department has similar regulations, though they were unaware of any such issues in the local jails.
The harm isn’t just in the inmates communicating with friends or potential gang members on the outside, but in at least one case, the social media site has been used to stalk a victim.
One inmate had been sentenced to a state facility for lewd and lascivious acts with a child. Four years after being in prison, the victim’s family receives a package from the inmate with drawings of the victim as she currently looked.
“They were wondering how he knew what she looked like,” Toyama said. “Through intelligence we learned he had been stalking the victim’s Facebook page.”
In another more comical case, an inmate with a smuggled cell phone, was updating his status with pictures taken from his cell.
“It was actually funny that you could see him bunk in the background,” she stated.
In the past, authorities have had problems taking down the profile pages of inmates who violated prison regulations, she said. But with the recent agreement between the CDCR and Facebook, they have been able to shut down an average of one page a day for the last month and a half.
Corrections departments in other states have come to similar agreements with Facebook as authorities discovered inmates’ postings on the site.
In one case, Justin Walker, a gang member convicted of murdering a law enforcement officer in Oklahoma, posted pictures of himself in his cell.
If an inmate had a profile prior to being sentenced to prison and there’s no evidence the prisoner has been on his or her page, then the account can remain active.
“It’s only if they’re actively using it while they’re in custody that it’s taken down,” Toyama stated.
While state prison officials are always monitoring inmates for the use of contraband, Toyama said anyone who has information about a prisoner using social media to harass or stalk can call the Office of Victim and Survivor Rights Services at (877) 265-6877.