I’d actually like this to go to court under a competant and sane judge, just to establish precedent.
It is abundandly clear that the inmate in question lacked access to the internet of any sort. His family’s access to the internet, and their activities online taken on his behalf, are unrelated.
Or this bb article could be taken the same way.
otoh if he does the 90 days is everybody cool? The Facebook page can stay?
Not to be contrarian, but the way prison gangs are able to completely control a prison, despite being inside, is accomplished by using people on the outside to communicate messages on their behalf. Its entirely possible that this person’s fellow inmates would benefit from the restriction placed on outside FB accounts, and enforcement of that rule. Of course, its terrible someone seperated from their family is denied a FB, but the total control of a prison gang is no joke.
(again not saying that this is right… just something to consider… nor am i saying 90 days in solitary is OK… it isn’t)
First, that mode of communication makes no sense. If you were trying to get messages out to your gang there are much simpler and safer ways to do it than publicly publishing said messages on a public forum under your own name. It would be like Al Capone paying to print messages in the Personals section of the local paper… under the name “Al Capone.”
Second—even if that was indeed what was happening—the prisoner’s crime would be relaying the instructions to his family, not publishing them on facebook. If publishing information on Facebook was a criminal act then it was their crime, not his.
If the prison has actual evidence this man is breaking the law then some response is warranted, but it seems they have none.
Anything that discourages Facebook usage by anyone is okay by me.
I’m sure lots of prisoners would love to go to court for all kinds of reasons. But pro-bono attorneys are in pretty short supply, and protecting your right to somebody making a Facebook page about you is not really up there with the death penalty. In most cases it seems like prison authorities can pretty much do whatever they want.
This is obviously a way for the “system” to keep inmates in the dark as much as possible about the world that continues to go on around them. This makes it nearly impossible for rehabilitation. This makes it abundantly clear that rehabilitation isn’t the goal of prison; the goal is to keep people from being able to integrate successfully back into society, and instead makes sure as many people as possible stay within the system once they’ve entered it.
First they went for the prisoners…and I did not speak out…
How noble of you.
Well that’s why groups like the ACLU and the New Mexico Center on Law are involved in this. One of their chief activities is to bring things like this to court where individuals otherwise cannot.
It’s worth noting that the New Mexico Corrections Department “relented at the last minute after much negative publicity”, showing that people speaking out against these abuses is an effective tactic, alongside others.
Land of enchantment.
I look forward to that development
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