The Prisoner

...Even weirder still, is having a Myspace account from prison! What do you think about that, eh? A couple of weeks ago, I met this guy, Michael, whose brother is in prison. Michael's brother, Matthew, was not wrongly committed; he's not a martyr; he just made a mistake and now he's doing the time.

Inmate 241323

What is interesting about this jailbird, though, is that he maintains an active Myspace account from behind bars, despite the fact that prisoners have no no access to computers, let alone the Internet.

I suppose that, like any of us, Matthew wants to feel connected with his friends. As he explains it, “I'm presently serving three years in the Alabama State Prison system and I went in June 13, 2005. My brother Michael has agreed to create a myspace profile for me. While I can't actually check my messages and friend requests myself, my brother sends me print-outs of my comments, etc. I keep up with things that go on in the prison, and write him letters, which will be posted as blogs.”

For his general interests, he lists: RELEASE DATE MAY 17, 2008, women, mail call, good books, cigarettes, instant coffee, tech school, tv, snacks, popcortn and visiting days.

And if I hadn't met Michael, I would think that the prisoner's site was a hoax. But some of the blog entries are too mundane to be fabricated, for instance, the entry describing Matthew's excitement over receiving deodorant. And there are some entries, about men who cheat on their baby's mamas with other men, that you don't find on the average Myspace account or blog. In pitching a Myspace site for his brother, Michael has set up a shrine of sorts for a man who has no real use for the Internet. But Michael is just being a good brother and, even though the blog entries are not primary records, he is doing the most he can to keep his incarcerated brother connected to the outside world. I think Rupert Murdoch would appreciate that.