For prisoners, that is.
The proliferation of cell phones smuggled into prisons has some inmates routinely updating their status from the inside, and South Carolina is considering becoming the first state to make that a crime.
The measure would add 30 days to a prisoner's sentence if he is caught interacting on social networking sites via cell phone. The bill goes a step further, too, making it illegal for anyone to set up a page for a prisoner, which legal experts say violates inmates' free speech rights even if they are using contraband cell phones.
Rep. Wendell Gilliard, a Democrat from Charleston who proposed the law, said crime victims shouldn't have to worry about seeing or being threatened by a prisoner online. There's also a fear convicts are coordinating criminal activity.
"We now know that the criminals behind bars are using this as a method of intimidation. People's lives are threatened. They're sending out coded messages through social networking," Gilliard said. "How can we as a society stand by and do nothing?"
South Carolina to make Facebook a Crime
Posted by
Two Sentz
on Sunday, March 20, 2011
Labels:
crime,
social media
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