The Channel 4 I-Team examined more than 100 communications on the inmates’ Facebook pages and found one case of an inmate communicating with an inmate in another prison.
A prisoner relaxing in his cell. A friend from outside prison asked him how he was on Facebook from inside prison.
The Facebook posts raise serious questions for the Tennessee Department of Corrections because the inmates aren’t supposed to have internet access and cell phones are prohibited in prisons.
The photos and videos show inmates claiming to be using drugs, smoking, hoarding snacks, giving each other tattoos, and in one photograph, burning clothes inside a cell.
“Anyone who sees those videos, they’re going to be sickened by it. They’re going to be angry,” said Verna Wyatt, executive director of Tennessee Voices for Victims, an advocacy group for crime victims.
The Channel 4 I-Team found inmates using Facebook not only to communicate instantly with family and friends, but also to talk to inmates in other prisons.
“I guarantee you, when the commissioner sees this, there’s going to be a reckoning. And there should be,” Wyatt said.
The Channel 4 I-Team released all our findings to the state department of correction and assistant commissioner Tony Parker, who is charge of security in state prisons.
“These are murderers, rapists, other convicted criminals and they appear to be having a pretty good time in prison,” asked chief investigative reporter Jeremy Finley.
“Again, I don’t like it. But it’s a problem we face every day,” said Parker.
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