FORT MILL, S.C. — A state prison has stripped an inmate of his privileges after a defenders investigation found him posting on Facebook from behind bars.
A spokesperson for the South Carolina Department of Corrections confirmed a disciplinary hearing found Brandon Byers guilty of creating a social networking site.
As a result, the state revoked canteen, telephone and visitation privileges for four months.
Byers is serving a 28-year sentence for his role in the 2006 fatal shooting of Jules Deon Crosby in Fort Mill.
Deputy Solicitor Willy Thompson, who handled Byers' original case, called the man's selfies and light-hearted Facebook posts a slap in the face to the victim's family and society.
"It's disturbing to see a man convicted of killing another person, breaking into someone's house in the middle of the night, committing this heinous crime, trying to kill a second person, even making kind of light of it," he said. "It's upsetting and I think for the victim's family, especially, it's got to be horribly upsetting."
South Carolina's long struggled with the problem of cell phones in prison. At one time, the state was home to the highest rate of confiscations in the country with thousands every year.
Robert Johnson, a former corrections captain, nearly died after a South Carolina inmate arranged a hit on him several years ago.
"A cell phone is giving an inmate a weapon of mass destruction," he said. "He can call up his buddy. Transfer the $6,000 that they paid to shoot me using their cell phone."
As the government looks for new ways to crack down on cell phones, which have proven successful recently in South Carolina, the president himself may have inadvertently helped.
Remember the first ever presidential alert that sent cell phones buzzing and beeping on October 3? On that same day, state records show South Carolina prison guards found and confiscated 15 cell phones.