Thousands of inmates in California’s state prisons have access to contraband mobile phones and are using them to update Facebook, among other things. Now, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is asking the social network to shut down Facebook accounts that have been updated since the prisoners’ incarceration.
The CDCR has begun reporting Facebook accounts set up and monitored by prison inmates to Facebook Security. Accounts set up and/or monitored on behalf of an inmate will be removed since doing either is a violation of Facebook’s user policies, according to the state.
“Access to social media allows inmates to circumvent our monitoring process and continue to engage in criminal activity,” said CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate in a statement. “This new cooperation between law enforcement and Facebook will help protect the community and potentially avoid future victims.”
The CDCR has confiscated more than 7,284 contraband mobile phones in state prisons just in the first half of 2011. In all of 2006, that number was only 261. It’s thus not a big stretch to learn that the Federal Bureau of Prisons National Gang Intelligence Center has reported increasing instances of inmates with active Facebook accounts. Some are administered by an outside person on behalf of an inmate, but many are also maintained illegally by the individual in prison.
The move is part of the CDCR’s ongoing efforts to ensure public safety both inside and outside the state’s prisons. The department says it has seen numerous instances in which inmates have used their Facebook accounts to deliver threats or make unwanted sexual advances.
Last year, an inmate sent drawings to the family of a 17-year old girl, even though it had been at least seven years since the offender had been convicted and sent to prison. An investigation was launched since details of the victim, such as how she wore her hair and what brand of clothes she wore, were accurate. It was discovered he had used a cell phone to obtain current photos from the victim’s MySpace and Facebook pages in order to draw the pictures.
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