Prison and Facebook
Few would be able to argue that this isn’t a good thing:
Thirty Facebook pages have been taken down because prisoners were using them to taunt their victims, Justice Secretary Jack Straw has said.It is good that these pages have been taken down, and would be even better if, y'know, it never happened again. Perhaps this could be a good example of government working in conjunction with business. Certainly, Jack Straw wants Facebook to do their fair share:
He said: "I'm sure Facebook is a massive organisation and there's lots of money floating around. If you have to spend a bit more on monitoring, then you have just got to do it."Now, I’m sure that Facebook does have some spare money and could spend it on monitoring. It was my understanding that Facebook already had policies to prevent, or at least deal with, abuse on their website, but if this sort of abuse is occurring, than further work to stop it can only be a good thing.
Yet I can’t help but feel that the government could be doing more themselves. Possibly they could do more than Facebook. On the grounds we are dealing with those who are detained at her Majesty’s pleasure:
"We are getting much tougher about people smuggling telephones into prison and using them.I mean, seriously, what the fuck? Yes, these people might well be devious and manipulative. After all, they are in prison. And this really shouldn’t be a revelation to Jack Straw, for Christ’s sake. But think about it for just one moment. These people are in prison. Yes, they might shove a mobile phone where the sun don’t shine, but they are in a secure prison 24-7 surrounded by guards! Surely the logical thing to do would be to search these people effectively? To guard them, to stop them from doing shitty things whilst serving their time in prison, would seem to be one of the key reasons for imprisoning them.
"I'm afraid we're dealing with crooks. Devious, manipulative people who actually have no respect for their own bodies so they push these mobile telephones into their body orifices."
Yes, maybe Facebook could police its site better. But surely to fuck it isn’t too much to ask the government to police its own prisons a little better first?
posted by The Nameless Libertarian @ 1:54 pm
8 Comments
8 Comments:
Why in hell should they have any access to the Internet at all?
Personally, I wouldn't even let them have access to TV either - they're *crooks* FFS!
I'm sorry but for somebody who claims to be a Libertarian since when are you deciding what people should and shouldn't write on Facebook?
That's not to say that Facebook is wrong in deleting the pages but it shouldn't be something that Government gets involved in.
Yes it should, because they're in prison. I think it's quite reasonable that their freedom is restricted given the position they're in. We'd be better off if we sharply delineated beteen convicted criminals & the innocent, with the latter not being treated as supects constantly.
I am for rehabilitation in most cases, if it's possible. But I think unless we focus on work, skills, literacy & what have you we won't get there, s that makes the case for banning TV, internet etc.
When you think about how many of those in prison are illiterate, it makes you wonder why society wastes time & money just leaving them to rot for a few years then releasing them in pretty much the same state they were always in.
I am also for life meaning life if rehabilitation is considered impossible or close enough, as with certain sex offenders.
I am not a libertarian but I can't imagine libertarians having any great disagreement with the above.
Ciraric,
Not for the first time, you've completely missed the point. I reckon you should spend more time reading and engaging with posts before you comment on them.
The government has decided that some people should be incarcerated for a set period of time. Said people are posting messages on a website using contraband mobile phones transported (if Straw is to be believed) using their rectal passages. If the government wants to keep these people behind bars, then it should enforce whatever prison regulations it insists upon. If prison does not restrict freedom, then what is the point of prison?
The point isn't that I want Facebook to do anything in particular (I have opinions on what Facebook should do and am happy to state what they are, but ultimately Facebook is a private organisation that should be able to do what it wants) but rather that the government - if it wants to stop this sort of thing happening - can do so without resorting to demanding things from Facebook. Like properly enforcing prison rules for prisoners.
TNL
Well it's wonderful that we agree on so much.
I think where we diverge in opinion is when Jack Straw comes into it.
Better prison security is brilliant. Ministers of the Crown spending time emailing social networking sites?
Jack Straw's job (along with others) is to make prisons secure. It would be nice if he, as DCF points out, tried to do something to educate prisoners whilst they are detained at his - sorry, her Majesty's - pleasure. But that is a recommendation about what he should do, rather than a demand.
Which is rather the point. Straw should do whatever he can in his job, and away from that he can e-mail who he likes about what he likes. He has the right to request certain things from Facebook, just as Facebook has the right to ignore him.
Being a Minister of the Crown doesn't mean you can't have opinions and ideas about things not directly in your political purview, you know.
What in hell makes you think prisoners get their cell phones in prison through their "rectal passages"? How naive you are! Most of the phones come in through those wonderful, law-abiding, upstanding, righteous prison guards. The ha ha is on YOU!
Anonymong,
To answer your question, the information (which I'm not sure I fully believe) comes from Jack Straw:
"I'm afraid we're dealing with crooks. Devious, manipulative people who actually have no respect for their own bodies so they push these mobile telephones into their body orifices."
Which you would know if you had read the article and the post. But that's too difficult for someone as simple as you, isn't it?
TNL
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