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Blogging Behind Bars

Blogging Behind Bars

Sending letters to convicted felons is nothing new; I’d have you ask Jeffrey MacDonald, Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy but they’re all burning in hell. So just take my word for it.

Psychopaths are not usually camera shy, and often have plenty to get off their chests. So wouldn’t a blog be the perfect venue for killers and creeps to torment their victims’ families?

I never really thought about it, but it’s come to my attention that some prisons actually permit prisoners to send e-mails (in turn making it possible to blog). The only catch is that they are not allowed to profit financially. But the publishers can laugh all the way to the bank.

You might have read about federal inmate No. 18330-424, Conrad Black, the former Canadian press baron convicted of defrauding his company’s newspapers. Found guilty of diverting funds for personal benefit and obstructing justice, the fallen financial maven was just published in Tina Brown’s The Daily Beast.

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I understand this clown is rotting in a white-collar facility, but if we give our liars, crooks and thieves this right from behind bars, the murderers and rapists can’t be far behind.

What are your thoughts? Are you siding with freedom of speech or common sense? Should felons be permitted to blog from behind bars?

View Comments (10)
  • Sure. Let ’em have at it. A prison could set up a WordPress MU-like config, but monitor and pre-approve everything posted – posts and comments. Blogging about life behind bars could make for some fascinating reading and could provide the conger (convict blogger?) with some positive personal insight and self-discovery.

  • Let’s be honest. Thord looks like a serial killer and Paul Boutin DJs at NAMBLA conventions. Mike Arrington has eaten babies, and Own Thomas sticks objects up his ass on a regular basis.

    The bloggins world is much, much weirder than anything found in prison.

  • The old adage says that it’s best to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. Prisoners with something positive or useful to say will get readership be able to continue providing good content. The fools will either quit writing or leave no doubt as to their foolishness. (As is the case with blogs in general these days.)

    I would definitely read an intelligent, well-written blog about life on the inside. So let ’em blog, without any monitoring at all! Let’s hear what they have to say!

  • Why not? As long as he do not influence others to do what he did, I think that there’s nothing wrong with it.

    However, I still believe someone somehow should still monitor all of his actions on the blog very closely.

  • My thoughts are that this and your opinions on who may or may not be ‘burning in hell’ are inappropriate to this blog. I’ve been thinking of unsubscribing this feed for a while now and that’s sealed the deal.

  • Interesting blog topic and the comments are just as diverse in opinion. I think that the punishment should fit the crime. There’s a lot of elements to consider.

  • He’s not just blogging – last week he published a feature article in teh Globe and Mail and was cited, not as a currently imprisoned convicted felon, but as an expert on FDR. Disgusting.

  • It seems to me that society puts those folks in prison as punishment for breaking the commonly accepted norms of society.

    Prison is supposed to be punishment, and I don’t believe they need to have anything more than the basic necessities of life to get by while they do their time.

    Coddling them does nothing but make their life a little better. They are in prison, being punished so they deserve nothing like this privilege.

    George

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