Hi SD,
Someone I know got arrested for using a peer to peer network for receiving images depicting the sexual abuse of children.
I am curious what happens to this person’s professional website, phone, Facebook page, etc. Do law enforcement officers shut down everything or demand that he do so? Is he able to be contacted at all? What is the process LEOs go through regarding a person’s livelihood when the person is immediately remanded to jail?
Thanks,
Dave
No. it doesn’t work that way unless there is inappropriate content. Facebook and the like are private. We still have freedom of speech in the U.S. until the neo-puritans get their way. I have several friends and acquaintances that have been accused or convicted of violent crimes including murder but it is still possible to talk with them.
In one case, one of my childhood friends is doing life but he is allowed to work outside the prison every day as long as he comes back at night. I am not sure on the policy on Facebook accounts but that is up to the state.
Nice. Fitting.
For sex crimes, it doesn’t seem uncommon to take away people’s ability to use the internet after conviction.
I think the OP was referring to social media and like accounts that were previously active. Unless the convict shuts them down, they’ll remain for quite some time. As to if there is a way or a policy on making sure accounts are active and being used by the person, I don’t know. But, I do have a friend who passed five years ago and her FB and MySpace is still up. Pretty sure she ain’t using it. Also, sadly just remembered another person who has passed and his FB is still up as well.
So, unless a next of kin comes in and shuts that all down, I have a feeling it’ll stay up.
As for the person convicted, IANAL, but I believe one is given a period of time to take care of said personal and business aspects of their life. I imagine the flexibility around that depends on the sentence and the type of crime, I imagine he will be held in a facility that is easier for his lawyer to access him for the first month, and then off he goes.
Lastly, the peer-to-peer network sites are every scary for this reason. A lot of people set themselves up as a “node” and willingly allow them to be part of the network. You really have no control over it, as in what’s going on your system. But the music or video used off of eBay or CL. So very scary to have your computer part of a node, you are literally letting hundreds or thousands or millions of strangers into your home.
As others have noted, this isn’t generally done, but it might be ordered in a specific case, and it’s the kind of order that might well be made in your friend’s case. But the default is that nothing is done in this regard.
Sure. You can write to him in prison, and you can visit him.
Can he be contacted through email or online social media? That depends on the prison regime to which he is subject.
LEOs generally don’t do anything about this. Why would they? It’s none of their business.
If you expect to be sent to prison there are things you can do in anticipation of that, if you want to. Otherwise you are dependent on being able to communicate with people outside the prison and/or enter into online transactions while in prison (which, as noted, is dependent on the prison regime - e.g, if you want to close down your Facebook account you may or may not be able to access Facebook to do this yourself) or on having friends and family do things for you.
A person convicted of such a crime might well decide to shut down their own social profiles, just to stop the unpleasant messages they’re likely to receive. Or they might not: it’s their accounts, and their call.
In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. They go so far as to shut down Facebook pages of those found guilty.
Moderator Note
Ambivalid, this appears to be a personal jab, which is prohibited in General Questions. No warning issued, but don’t do this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I guess the point is - what do you expect them to do? The law does nothing, doesn’t care. The person may be told (especially in the case of crimes involving computers) that as a condition of bail, while awaiting trial, they cannot use the internet or even touch a computer. (IIRC wasn’t there a case recently where it was decided that a blanket “stay off the internet/computer” condition of bail or was it parole, was effectively depriving someone of making a living? If you can’t even have a cellphone, or computer, your options are limited, even so far as finding a job or submitting a resume -what, a handwritten resume? )
it’s not the government’s problem to wrap up your affairs, that’s up to you to make whatever arrangements you can.
If a person was denied bail, even worse. When would they be allowed to access any of their websites? Presumably for banking, moving stuff out of their home into storage, etc. - they’d have to rely on friends or family.
Worst case, nothing happens. Your website or whatever is frozen in time until the provider gets rid of it - much as if you don’t have someone to handle it, your landlord basically is stuck the same as if you died in a car crash or took off to India on the spur of the moment to find enlightenment - or ended up in traction in hospital for 6 months. Someone will have to dispose of your “stuff” - physical or digital - if you don’t arrange for someone to do it. Worst is the stuff that’s both. Sure you have your photos on your computer - but will it still be there, still fire up in 10 to 20 years?
(I don’t know - how much work will a lawyer do for you? They can probably arrange to hire a mover or a computer expert or whatever you need to sort out your affairs from remote. Hope you have the money.
If you’re just arrested, generally nothing happens to any business arrangements or personal websites. In some circumstances a site might be frozen or locked down by court order, especially if it’s for a business involved in organized crime, and in that case there would be a specific order to freeze accounts and/or seize assets initiated by the prosecutor and approved by the court. You might not be able to get to your accounts from jail, but you can get out on bail or have a lawyer, friend, or family member manage business outside.
If you’re convicted, then it’s all like any other business contract; the lights stay on until the bills aren’t paid. It’s not unheard of to get some time before actually going to prison to wrap up your affairs (this varies a lot and is more likely the more money you have), and like with jail you can get a lawyer, friend, or relative to close things up. You don’t generally lose any right to hold property, so you could still own a business, rent a space, have a phone line, rent a server, have a data line, and so on, you just wouldn’t be involved in it’s operation. If it’s something like a restaurant then maybe a co-owner or manager keeps operating it, if it’s a one-man show then for practical reasons you’d need to shut it down. If you’ve got the money or are using a free service, you can leave something like a phone number, facebook account, or email account collecting messages while you’re locked up, you just won’t be able to get to any of it until you’re out. Officers aren’t going to do anything to help, and the most that the court will do is send a court order to freeze or shut down something. Any paid services are still going to want payment, so you may have judgements waiting for you when you get out.
For some sex offenses (especially involving kids) closing down online accounts might be required, in which case the prosecutor or police or interested party will get a court order to close them if the convict doesn’t do it themselves. I’ve seen people contact the local PD to get a facebook account of a sex offender shut down (oddly, no one knew she was until she tried to make money by babysitting which… did not go well for her), it’s pretty much going in and filling out a form.
Upon arrest cops don’t care and don’t have power to shut down anything beyond what is being used directly in the criminal activity.
After conviction internet access is controlled by the institution.
After release offenses that fall under Megan’s Law may require Parole Supervision for Life. One of the stipulations for PSL may be no internet or no social media. That is not controlled or checked by the police, it’s the function of the parole officers.
All I have to say is if I was going to prison for sex crimes against kids, social media would be way down the list of things to worry about.
I’m kinda interested in finding out what crime your friend was convicted of that got him life in prison but he’s allowed to come and go to the prison every day on his own recognizance.
How does that work?
So what happens if someone goes to jail and it’s time to turn the lights off because they haven’t paid their bills? Can you take them to small claims court? Obviously they can’t show up, and I presume usually can’t afford a lawyer to come answer. Is a lawyer allowed in small claims in that situation? Or would that be a summary judgement? How would you go about collecting - how do you find assets, bank accounts, etc.? What’s a landlord’s rights typically (I know, every state is different) about items abandoned in a house or apartment?
Lik I said earlier, let’s say that computer has you last 20 years’ photos and correspondence… At what point, too, does GMail or Hotmail stop working and shut off your account?
It seems to me that going to jail for a year or five would suck more than life over this issue - unless someone took care of things for you, you lose everything and start over when you get out with pretty much everything gone.
(There were a couple of threads a while earlier about “how do you prove who you are?” If all your “stuff” was thrown in the dumpster and you come out of prison with nothing - how do you get your birth certificate, driver’s license, Social Security number, etc.? How many people are numerically anal like me and can remember that number? Do the authorities just push you out the door - “go forth and sin no more…”)
Yes, it does suck. And guess what kind of people who go to prison? People who are dumb, drug affected, insane, with broken families, or just generally unable to cope with life in general. And do you think they sort out all that stuff before they get locked up? Nope. After they stop paying rent, they get evicted, and all their stuff gets thrown out.
And then when they get out, as well as having no drivers licence and no photo ID at all, they have no fixed address, no credit history and no rental history.
Did you see the recent column about the use of video services for visitation? If you’ve got family to look after you when you get out, it’s a big help. If you don’t… well recidivism means more money for the prison industry.
In fact, if you have a family to look after you, then the video per-minute charge means more money to soak out of those who probably can’t afford it in the first place. To line the pockets of private industry and the government…
I recall reading about some study about criminals in jail and recidivism rates; they checked the records for various people given various assistance inside and when transitioning out of jail. In fact, it did not matter what help they got. People who got no help cleaned up their act at about the same rate as people given all the helping hands society could muster.