I disagree greatly. Phone calls of jailed persons, as a general rule, should not be fodder for media and public consumption. This is especially true with regard to persons who have not yet been convicted of a crime.
Do jailed persons still literally pay through the nose for each phone call? I know in the 1970’s and 1980’s, South Carolina had a law that pay phones located in jails, prisons, hospitals, and courthouses, could only charge a dime for local calls. For the last 15 or so years, I have heard numerous horror stories of jails (and prisons?) gouging inmates or the recipients of their collect calls for dozens of dollars for a few minutes’ conversation. One common rumour had it that Jimmy Metts’ wife profited greatly from gouging inmates of LCDC or their correspondents, for every inmate phone call made from the Lexington County Detention Center. I have often wondered if that travesty lived past Jimmy’s time as Sheriff. What happened to the ten cent law?
Anyway, if inmates or their correspondents are paying for the calls, this does not seem right, allowing media or public review of the calls unless it was something particularly newsworthy such as an escape attempt or a hit on someone being planned.
I am infinitely more concerned about the increasing plague of encryption of all Law Enforcement and other Public Safety radio channels in South Carolina. Lexington County LE agencies in particular are bad about not alerting the public to crimes or crime trends which might be a concern in their areas or neighborhoods. Sometimes, many hours, even days, pass before the public is alerted to a trend or dangerous person at large. Taxpayers pay for these radio systems. Any department encrypting their dispatch channels likely has a hierarchy that feels it has something to hide from the public. They certainly have no claim on the currently trendy buzzword of “transparency”.
It is not your job as a “journalist“ to determine if anything contained in the calls is relevant to the facts of the case. That is a determination to be made solely by the trial judge based on the advocacy of the attorneys involved is a criminal proceeding.
It is also not your job to determine “which [calls] fall into which category”. That again is the job of the judge.
The ONLY reason you want those calls is to help yourself by driving up clicks. You don’t give a damn about that family and those victims. It’s not your job or place to help them answer questions about what happened. You’re not law enforcement or a prosecutor or a victim advocate or a court official.
Ralph Hightower Top fanOctober 28, 2023 at 4:54 pm
I didn’t realize that there is a segment of human society that I would characterize as “prison groupies” until FITSNews started publishing transcripts of “love letters” to convicted double murderer, Alex Murdaugh.
But South Carolina’s PeeWee Gaskins, and California’s Charles Manson probably had prison groupies that were sending them “love letters”.
3 comments
I disagree greatly. Phone calls of jailed persons, as a general rule, should not be fodder for media and public consumption. This is especially true with regard to persons who have not yet been convicted of a crime.
Do jailed persons still literally pay through the nose for each phone call? I know in the 1970’s and 1980’s, South Carolina had a law that pay phones located in jails, prisons, hospitals, and courthouses, could only charge a dime for local calls. For the last 15 or so years, I have heard numerous horror stories of jails (and prisons?) gouging inmates or the recipients of their collect calls for dozens of dollars for a few minutes’ conversation. One common rumour had it that Jimmy Metts’ wife profited greatly from gouging inmates of LCDC or their correspondents, for every inmate phone call made from the Lexington County Detention Center. I have often wondered if that travesty lived past Jimmy’s time as Sheriff. What happened to the ten cent law?
Anyway, if inmates or their correspondents are paying for the calls, this does not seem right, allowing media or public review of the calls unless it was something particularly newsworthy such as an escape attempt or a hit on someone being planned.
I am infinitely more concerned about the increasing plague of encryption of all Law Enforcement and other Public Safety radio channels in South Carolina. Lexington County LE agencies in particular are bad about not alerting the public to crimes or crime trends which might be a concern in their areas or neighborhoods. Sometimes, many hours, even days, pass before the public is alerted to a trend or dangerous person at large. Taxpayers pay for these radio systems. Any department encrypting their dispatch channels likely has a hierarchy that feels it has something to hide from the public. They certainly have no claim on the currently trendy buzzword of “transparency”.
It is not your job as a “journalist“ to determine if anything contained in the calls is relevant to the facts of the case. That is a determination to be made solely by the trial judge based on the advocacy of the attorneys involved is a criminal proceeding.
It is also not your job to determine “which [calls] fall into which category”. That again is the job of the judge.
The ONLY reason you want those calls is to help yourself by driving up clicks. You don’t give a damn about that family and those victims. It’s not your job or place to help them answer questions about what happened. You’re not law enforcement or a prosecutor or a victim advocate or a court official.
I didn’t realize that there is a segment of human society that I would characterize as “prison groupies” until FITSNews started publishing transcripts of “love letters” to convicted double murderer, Alex Murdaugh.
But South Carolina’s PeeWee Gaskins, and California’s Charles Manson probably had prison groupies that were sending them “love letters”.