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Inmates Using Social Media to Harass Victims, Intimidate Witnesses

Across the U.S. and beyond, inmates are using social networks and the growing numbers of smartphones smuggled into prisons and jails to harass their victims or accusers and intimidate witnesses.

Photo: ArabCrunch.Photo: ArabCrunch.

Lisa Gesik hesitates to log into her Facebook account nowadays because of unwanted "friend" requests, not from long-ago classmates but from the ex-husband now in prison for kidnapping her and her daughter.

As the days tick down to his January release, she is considering going into hiding with her 12-year-old daughter.

Across the U.S. and beyond, inmates are using social networks and the growing numbers of smartphones smuggled into prisons and jails to harass their victims or accusers and intimidate witnesses. California corrections officials who monitor social networking sites said they have found many instances in which inmates taunted victims or made unwanted sexual advances, reports the Associated Press via the New York Daily News.

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