Inmates harass victims via Facebook

[alp227]

by Don Thompson, AP

Lisa Gesik hesitates to log into her Facebook account nowadays because of unwanted "friend" requests, not from long-ago classmates but from the ex-husband now in prison for kidnapping her and her daughter.

Neither Gesik nor prison officials can prove her ex-husband is sending her the messages, which feature photos of him wearing his prison blues and dark sunglasses, arms crossed as he poses in front of a prison gate. It doesn't matter if he's sending them or someone else is — the Newport, Ore., woman is afraid and, as the days tick down to his January release, is considering going into hiding with her 12-year-old daughter.

"It's just being victimized all over again," she said.

Across the U.S. and beyond, inmates are using social networks and the growing numbers of smartphones smuggled into prisons and jails to harass their victims or accusers and intimidate witnesses. California corrections officials who monitor social networking sites said they have found many instances in which inmates taunted victims or made unwanted sexual advances.

full: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45391607/ns/technology_and_science-security/t/growing-problem-inmates-harassing-victims-facebook/

[virgogal]

1. IMHO I give Facebook about 5 more years. It will just drift away.

[broiles]

2. I hope so. n/t

[alp227]

3. I use Facebook...hold on lemme run off your lawn first

[Skittles]

7. just another fad I did not fall for

[monmouth]

4. What are prisoners doing with computers and other tech?...n/t

[alp227]

5. By smuggling them

[yurbud]

8. they shouldn't even give them barbells--just Richard Simmons exercise tapes

[saras]

6. Doesn't that sort of harassment get him a longer sentence?

It's perfectly simple to find where the messages are coming from, if they WANT to.