Should Prisoners Have Access to the Internet?

Prisoners are afforded their basic rights, as laid out in the constitution. They are given three meals a day, shelter, legal advice (which may not be very good), and visitation with family members and friends. Some of the prisons are even made comfortable by allowing inmates to have televisions and other forms of home comforts while incarcerated. You may think having these things would be enough comforts for prisoners; after all, they are being punished. Unfortunately, many think prisoners should be able to have internet access as a way to communicate with the outside world.

Granting inmates access to the internet can be a good and bad thing. It may be a good thing for the inmates to have access to the internet for gaining legal advice. If a prisoner has a need for additional legal advice, why not allow them to only access a few select law websites and block everything else? Well, some prisoner advocates believe that prisoners' first amendment rights would be violated by denying the right to the internet.

It may be a good idea to grant inmates internet access for those who would like to pursue educational opportunities. In today's world, it is virtually impossible for a person to obtain a degree or write a research paper without having access to the internet. It is not likely the inmate will find all the materials needed to complete a program in the prison library, so why not let them research some academic resources on the internet?

Some activists believe prisoners should have full access to the internet and not just for legal or educational purposes. I have a major problem with letting prisoners have full reign on the internet. There are too many things that can go wrong with websites like Myspace.com becoming breeding grounds for predators. It just would not be comforting knowing a fourteen year old boy or girl could be communicating with someone behind bars and nobody ever knows it.