Facebook in Prison Row

A scandal in the UK has erupted after it was discovered that a double ‘A’ category prisoner, serving a 35 year sentence in the UK, for conspiracy to murder, has been using a Facebook account to keep in touch with friend and foe on ‘the outside’. Prison governors allowed Colin Gunn, a notorious underworld gangster to set up the site believing it to be against his human rights to deny him.

Jack Straw, the UK Justice Secretary, insists that prisoners do not have access to online networking sites, so this will be a huge embarrassment to his department.  Gunn has been able, for the past two months to update his Facebook daily.  The Sunday Times newspaper in the UK, brought the infringement to light and the site has now been shut down pending investigation.

Strange that no one in the prison hierarchy sought to establish whether Facebook use in prison was legally acceptable or not!