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Recently while reading the news headlines, something caught my attention. We all have heard of MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Now, when it comes to these social networking sites, I have yet to participate. However, I’ve given it some pretty serious thought being that we now have a new baby at home and family stretched across the USA. It seems as though social networking sites in general are opening more avenues for criminal activity. Everyday I read an article stating how another person was victimized on one of these sites. So it brings up two closely related issues to me, inmates/criminals using internet and having access to these sites, and people using them for criminal activity to prey on innocent young people and people that are not “computer savvy” who do not understand what real threats can lie online.

An inmate using the internet is very frightening for those of us who have worked in institutions; since we know that some inmates spend massive amounts of time trying to figure out ways beat the system. I fear that giving inmates access to the internet is only going to be asking for more headaches. For instance, I was on-site at a facility, and while there this institution had given inmates access to use a county computer to access law library material. That computer was not locked down correctly and one of the more computer savvy inmates was able go to get access to county employee personal files. That inmate in turn went back to the block where the officer working the block had done something to upset this inmate; the inmate retaliated with the officer’s address, phone number and social security number. So maybe the facility was at fault, but this is an example of an inmate using his or her privilege to take an advantage. Now if we were to take this example and compound it with broader ability to access the internet and social networking sites, there is no telling where the ceiling lies.

As these sites grow and more and more people begin using them, we have the concern that they will be used in an illegal manner. I am sure that a convicted felon somewhere is planning something illegal as I write this. What is even scarier is that the vast majorities using these sites are young and impressionable teens who do not have the life experiences and shall I say “tough skin” that many of us have. I think back to when I was that young, raised in a small town around good people that it wasn’t until I got to college that I realized a person can look you right in the eyes and lie to you.  Then I really had my eyes opened when I began working in county prison right out of college. I was impressionable and could have had my mind changed at any given point, but I was a lucky one, as I had good morals instilled in me that guided me through making the right decisions. I am not sure that today’s youth have that same set of morals that will assist them, not because the parents are doing a worse job but because society as a whole is willing to just sweep things under the rug and take the easy way out. If a child is “overactive” in school they need medicated whereas the town where I grew up, if you were overactive you were a good worker!  

In closing, yes every generation seems to have it a bit easier than the one before, but where do we draw the line. I know that my Dad says that he had to walk to school through two feet of snow, up hill both ways and fight off the grizzly bears with his three ring binders, but today’s inmates having access to our most personal thoughts, pictures, addresses, phone numbers, and maps to our houses is where I draw the line.