Inmate Faces 90 Days in Solitary Confinement Over a Facebook Profile b4in.org/j5ny Like more than a billion other people on the planet, Eric Aldaz had a Facebook profile. What made Aldaz’s profile different from most is that he was unable to post to it himself: he didn’t hold the login credentials or even have any kind of access to the Internet. He is an inmate of the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) and his family maintained the page on his behalf. New Mexico has an obscure prison policy that forbids inmates from accessing the Internet directly or through “third parties.” Now, Aldaz is facing 90 days in solitary confinement because he refused to tell his family to take his Facebook profile down. To New Mexico’s credit, the corrections department agreed to reopen Aldaz’s disciplinary case and to review the policy after EFF started asking questions and filing public records requests. The inmate has yet to be placed in disciplinary segregation. With hopes of heading it off, EFF, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, the Human Rights Defense Center and Prison Legal News have sent a letter to NMCD asking the agency to repeal the policy and undo the punishment leveled at the inmate. Read the letter to NMCD here. EFF first learned of NMCD’s policy when a local Albuquerque television station aired a report about how an inmate at the Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton was violating the prison’s social media ban by having a Facebook page. The one-line rule was buried on page 28 of the department’s “Information Technology Management” policy, a document primarily for staff that contained no further definitions or guidance: Offenders in the custody or supervision of the Department are not permitted access to the Internet, nor are they permitted to obtain access to the Internet through third parties. More with links b4in.org/j5ny
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 10:48:20 +0000
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