Inmate posts Facebook selfies from prison van
Technically Incorrect: A West Virginia inmate somehow gets hold of a cell phone and merrily posts away, while in handcuffs. But where did he get the phone?
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
One of the selfies in question.
Prisoners are supposed to be denied certain privileges.
Sometimes, though, there are lapses.
One may have occurred when 27-year-old Shane Holbrook posted some selfies to Facebook. He took them in a prison van while on the way back from a court hearing.
As WVAH-TV reports, there were other inmates in the van with him. He took pictures of them too. Yes, while in handcuffs.
"We were just trying to have a good time in jail. We're already here, why be miserable?" he told WVAH. "I said hi to a couple of people to let everyone know I was doing all right -- family and friends."
One reason to be miserable might be because you're in jail on charges of malicious wounding and armed robbery.
Still, Holbrook further explained to WSAZ-TV, "I wasn't going to dwell on the negative. I was going to focus on the positive and keep moving forward with this."
Some might wonder, however, how he got hold of a cell phone and spent an apparent 20 minutes posting his Facebook pictures.
"Let's just say I found it," he said of the phone. "It was within my reach."
The West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety offered me this statement: "The West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority requires pat-downs of all individuals when they enter its custody, as part of the agency's zero tolerance policy against contraband. The incident in question remains under investigation. The device at issue was confiscated before the inmates entered the Western Regional Jail."
Holbrook, though, told WSAZ, "I just know how to use the system to my advantage sometimes."
Some states are becoming draconian with respect to prisoners and social media. Recently, Texas became the latest to ban prisoners from Facebook and Twitter.
In this case, it will be interesting to see if Holbrook and, perhaps, others might be sanctioned for his selfie-taking.
He did give WSAZ a clue that he hadn't acted alone: "I regret that somebody may get in trouble. I know there's people with jobs and families to feed and if this falls on someone and they lose their job because of this, I'm a feel like a piece of crap for a while. But at the same time, I'm a kid at daycare. And just because I drank the bleach, doesn't mean it wasn't my fault."