Inmates using cell phones to access facebook harass victims

Inmates using cell phones to access facebook harass victims, Inmates Using Cellphones to Access Facebook, Harass Victims. Contraband cellphones have gone for as much as $1,000 inside prison walls. Prison officials have enlisted Facebook to remove inmates' pages following an uptick in the usage of contraband cellphones to access the social media site, according to an announcement made Monday.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation administrators announced that they have started reporting inmates' pages to Facebook, and the company will begin removing pages that have been updated since the user was incarcerated -- the latest attempt to combat an issue that has grown alongside smart phones and social media.

"Access to social media allows inmates to circumvent our monitoring process and continue to engage in criminal activity," Corrections Department Secretary Mathew Cate said in a statement posted on the prison system's website.

Inmates have reportedly been accessing their victims pages in addition to their own, allegedly harassing them from behind prison walls. In Monday's statement, it was revealed that a child molester who has been behind bars for some seven years recently sent up-to-date drawings of the victim, now 17, to her home after viewing photos of her on her Facebook and Myspace pages.

More than 10,760 contraband cellphones were found behind prison walls last year. So far this year, over 7,200 have been found -- a substantial increase when compared to the 261 found six years ago.

Prison employees, who are not searched before entering facilities, could likely be responsible for the substantial increase in contraband cellphones.

Source:ktla