South Carolina Inmate Receives 37 Years In Solitary Confinement For Updating Facebook

[n2doc]

Almost 400 inmates in South Carolina have spent time in solitary confinement for using social media websites, a violation the state Department of Corrections defines as equal to murdering or raping a fellow inmate, according to an Electronic Frontier Foundation investigation.

The digital rights group discovered through a public information request that prison officials have filed more than 400 disciplinary actions against prisoners who were found to be using cellphones smuggled behind bars to access Facebook or who gave their personal account information to friends or family to update their accounts. And since 2012, the South Carolina Department of Corrections has defined “creating and/or assisting with a social networking site” as a Level 1 offense, punishable by solitary confinement or the removal of privileges like phone access or visitation time.

Each time an inmate accesses Facebook is counted as a separate Level 1 violation, which leads to excessive punishments like inmates being put in isolation for years at a time, the report said.

“If a South Carolina inmate caused a riot, took three hostages, murdered them, stole their clothes, and then escaped, he could still wind up with fewer Level 1 offenses than an inmate who updated Facebook every day for two weeks,” the EFF said in its report.

more

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/02/13/3622848/solitary-south-carolina-facebook/

[stage left]

1. That is just seriously crazy.

But no more than I expect from this benighted state I live in. I know personally of an inmate who was denied Canteen privileges, visitation rights, and telephone privileges because he gave some food he bought to another prisoner. What was the other guy going to do? Off someone with a bag of chips? Way to go, SC. Punish someone for having a generous heart.

37 years in solitary is beyond doubt cruel and unusual punishment. Even a murderer doesn't deserve that.

[questionseverything]

18. it is inhuman

this is exactly the kind of thing the constitution was supposed to prohibit but the feds are too busy prosecuting medical mj patients on the west coast

[stage left]

32. Agreed.

The amount of inhumanity this country is capable of just floors me. Is there anything that can be done about this horrible injustice?

[progressoid]

2. Jesus H.

[procon]

3. What are they trying yo hide that they don't want made public? nt

[gopiscrap]

4. My thought also!!!

[ladjf]

5. Well, add another state to "Don't ever live there" state. nt

[RebelOne]

6. Better yet, never get arrested in that state. n/t

[ladjf]

7. Good advice. One would be wise to avoid visiting. Now-days the

police will shoot to kill without any credible reason.

[LuckyLib]

19. My list keeps getting longer -- for political reasons, crazies, gun-nuttery,

and anti-immigrant rabid behavior.

[Ramses]

8. another day in the hellhole that is America

We have the most prisoners literally than any other country on the planet

[Exultant Democracy]

9. The prison system has an insatiable thirst for brown and black bodies.

And every good dairy farmer knows that keeping cattle already you have around to milk is cheaper then buying new ones.

[DetlefK]

10. Now, imagine someone used their smuggled phone to post secret messages to other criminals.

Would you THEN be okay with a hash punishment?

Sending someone to jail means punishing him with isolation. What's the point if the inmate can communicate with the people he is supposed to miss? What is the point of separating someone from his gang and then giving him the possibility to exchange with them?

There is a reason why these smartphones have to be SMUGGLED in: The inmates are supposed to be cut off from communication with the outside world.

[Ex Lurker]

11. Yeah, they use them to run gambling, drug, and extortion schemes from behind bars

and in some cases to order hits on other inmates or people outside the prisons. There are a lot of seriously bad people who are incarcerated. Not everyone was wrongfully convicted or somehow a victim of society. Prisoners should not have access to cell phones. They just shouldn't. I will say that giving someone else their account info to post on social media shouldn't be prohibited.

[SCVDem]

15. The liberal side of me says

What's the problem?

Then there's jury tampering, killing witnesses, controlling from behind bars and many other issues.

If we can't be safe from someone who is incarcerated, what's the point?

[Gore1FL]

13. There are useful purposes for the rules.

37 years of solitary seems an excessive punishment, however. Posting on social media having equal consequence to causing a riot, taking hostages, or murdering someone is more than a little unbalanced.

[blackspade]

40. Oh, for fuck's sake.

Really?

Is no level of dehumanization enough for authoritarians?

[Stainless]

12. Former Confederate State............

What the fuck do you expect from degenerate inbred hillbillies?

[rpannier]

14. The State that was at the front

Let's all remember that the Nullification Party was a Sen Calhoun Party and was pretty much restricted to South Carolina.
Proving what blowhards they were, when Pres. Jackson told Calhoun if his state seceded, he'd personally hang him, that was pretty much the end of his calling for secession

[Lancero]

21. Ever see this picture before?

[img][/img]

It is, without doubt the most iconic poster used in Barrack Obama's election campaigns.

And according to you, it was designed by a inbred hillbilly.

Or, do you recgonize this man?

[img][/img]

He is James Brown, regarded as the Grandfather of Soul music. By your standards, he also is a inbred hillbilly.

How about this person, a Nobel winning biochemist and geneticist - One of many people whose research helped lead to the creation of cholesteral fighting medications, medications that have saved numerous lives.

[img][/img]

Might just be me, but I don't think his accomplishments are those of a inbred hillbilly.

Ever hear about the Panama Canal? You know, that one semi-important (Actually, very important) ship passage? Yeah, you've labeled the guy who was instrumental in it's completion a inbred hillbilly as well.

Another interesting one - Thoman Heyward Jr. In case you don't recgonize the name, I'll save you the effort - He was one of the signers to the Declaration of Independence. Yeah, that inbred hillbilly helped create this nation.

[stage left]

34. +1

And then there's Charles Townes, co-inventor of the laser and pride of Greenville, SC. which is also my hometown.

[AverageJoe90]

24. Don't be *too* hard on S.C. as a whole, mind you.

Sure, the Palmetto State's had it's fair share of bad apples, but John Edwards was from S.C., too. So was Bayard Rustin, the Civil Rights worker also known for his work in promoting LGBT rights late in his life.

[benz380]

26. Change your name to Brainless. nt

[flygal]

37. .....

My red state (Montana) is really embarrassing right now too - so I feel for all states doing some crazy shit. Stay and fight!!

[stage left]

33. Hmm

It's really not us degenerate inbred hillbillies who are the biggest problem. Mainly we'uns lay out on our ramshackle porches with our lazy ole 'coon dogs, trying to get the rust off great great grand pappy's rifle what he carried in the Great War( and I don't mean World War I neither.) And we don't bother nobody. The ones causing the trouble would be those respectable church going, bible believing, evangelical fundamentalist Christian/Republicans who believe that Jesus was a blonde, blue-eyed Capitalist American Christian who believed exactly as they do and hated exactly the people they hate. Their only criteria for supporting a candidate is does he claim he's born again and is he against gay marriage and abortion.

Furthermore, this mindset is not confined to South Carolina. It is, obviously, nationwide. We have Niki Hayley, yeah, we unfortunately do, but Wisconsin, unfortunately, has Scott Walker.

[SCantiGOP]

35. Dear Stainless:

Fuck you, bigot.

[cwydro]

36. Classy. nt

[daredtowork]

16. Unconstitutional? Seems like cruel and unusual punishment. nt

[KamaAina]

17. Do inmates check in on Foursquare?

"You have just stolen the mayoralty of San Quentin from Charles Manson!".

[xocet]

20. Interesting...

Man who nearly beat Carter Strange to death facing new charges

Posted: Sep 27, 2013 10:18 AM CDT
Updated: Oct 07, 2013 10:23 AM CDT

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - The ringleader of a group of men who nearly beat a Columbia man to death two years ago in Five Points is spending 23 hours a day in a cell and facing new charges after corrections officials swept part of the prison following a Lowcountry blog's publishing of his alleged Facebook activity.

Tyheem Henrey has been charged with creating and assisting in a social network site and unauthorized inmate organization activity because of alleged use of gang symbols, a corrections department spokesperson said Friday.

The 21-year-old was placed in solitary confinement after the sweep.

Henrey is serving a 15-year sentence after police say he and seven others assaulted then 18-year-old Carter Strange at Five Points in June, 2011. Strange nearly died.

...

http://www.wistv.com/story/23548081/man-who-nearly-beat-carter-strange-to-death-facing-new-charges

It looks like he is still serving about a 15 year sentence:

PROJECTED RELEASE DATE 03/12/2025.

http://public.doc.state.sc.us/scdc-public/inmateDetails.do?id=%2000350553

February 12, 2015 | By Dave Maass
Hundreds of South Carolina Inmates Sent to Solitary Confinement Over Facebook

...

So disproportionate are these punishments that South Carolina doesn’t have space in disciplinary detention for all the offenders and “regularly” is forced to put the punishments on hold. In the cases of the three above inmates, SCDC says that none will serve the full punishment since they will be released from prison within the next five to 10 years.

...

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/02/hundreds-south-carolina-inmates-sent-solitary-confinement-over-facebook

Maybe the prison should block cell phone traffic? That seems better than putting inmates in solitary confinement for extended periods.

[davidn3600]

23. DOC's don't want inmates talking about the corruption

[Scuba]

25. It's about an urge to punish people. Has nothing to do with justice.

[Shrike47]

27. I am amazed that visitors were able to smuggle in a phone and give it to an inmate.

That is lax visitation supervision. The penalty is obviously excessive but they made it way too easy in the first place. If you can smuggle in a phone, you can smuggle in a gun.

[metalbot]

28. Well, it could be a visitor

Or it could be an employee at the prison (who would have much more latitude on entrance). The latter seems more likely.

[davidpdx]

30. It could conceivably be done by drone

Fly it in at night and drop it in a specific place in the yard. Some of the drones have cameras on them so the person who is operating it can see where it is going.

[Orrex]

29. If only they could make it a crime to post cat pics on FB

And make posting multiple pics of coffee a capital offense.

[davidpdx]

31. I agree it is excessive punishment

but at the same time inmates who have smuggled phones in any institution are a security risk. Those that have phones could be ordering hits on people, dealing drugs, planning an escape, etc.

Now I think personally they were idiots for updating their Facebook profiles. Really if you are going to do something like use a smuggled cell phone in prison why risk getting caught by using Facebook. It is kind of like the dumb person who goes up and hooks a chain around an ATM and tries to drive off with it.

[BeanMusical]

38. This is surreal!

[blackspade]

39. This is some crazy shit.

Who the fuck cares if they update facebook?
Who came up with this policy? Specifically?
Maybe they should be arrested for being a fucking idiot.