{"id":2029,"date":"2026-06-15T14:09:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T14:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=2029"},"modified":"2026-06-15T14:09:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T14:09:50","slug":"posting-from-prison-jailbirds-get-their-say-from-behind-bars-on-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=2029","title":{"rendered":"Posting from prison: Jailbirds get their say from behind bars on social media"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thought you\u2019d heard the last of convicted murderer Jodi Arias?<\/p>\n

She and other inmates serving hard time in prison are posting on social media with the help of friends on the outside, hoping to influence their public image, raise money to challenge their convictions, or in some cases, seek clemency from President Trump.<\/p>\n

Read more Vance: U.S. has upper hand in peace talks; Iran must decide if it wants to extend hand to the world<\/a><\/p>\n

Arias, who is serving life without parole for stabbing and shooting her ex-boyfriend to death, posts photos and her musings on her Substack account, \u201cJust Jodi,\u201d which boasts hundreds of subscribers.<\/p>\n

In May, she told followers she\u2019s developed a reputation in the prison yard as the inmate who helps injured birds. \u201cGo get Jodi! They say. I\u2019m a busy lady, but I\u2019ll drop everything to help an injured animal,\u201d she wrote in a post available only to paid subscribers. She also hawks her artwork, which outsiders can purchase to help fund her legal defense. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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In March of 2025, convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, the one-time poster boy of cryptocurrency who co-founded the now-defunct FTX, made a surprise appearance on Tucker Carlson\u2019s popular podcast, appearing via an unauthorized video call from the \u00a0Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center on his 33rd birthday.<\/p>\n

The move landed him in solitary confinement temporarily, but the exchange with Mr. Carlson and his millions of viewers on social media may have been worth it. It gave Bankman-Fried a massive platform from which to criticize Democrats and the Biden administration and portray himself as Republican-friendly as his family tried to curry favor with President Trump in hopes of winning a pardon.<\/p>\n

Jailhouse interviews are nothing new, but prisoners are able to communicate with the public far more frequently and with greater control thanks to social media.<\/p>\n

Bankman-Fried posts regularly on X from a federal prison in Santa Barbara, California, by delivering his messages by phone or letter to someone on the outside. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of his posts center on defending his image.<\/p>\n

He has reposted hedge fund gurus who praise his past investments in startups that have exploded in value and he advises followers about expanding crypto use, which he said, \u201cis the future of AI-native payments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Holmes, convicted of defrauding investors in 2022 through her now-defunct Theranos health tech company, defends her reputation with frequent posts on X. She describes herself as an inventor who \u201cchallenged the profit center of Big Healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n

She posted in June about missing her two children, ages 4 and 3, as she serves out an 11-year sentence at a minimum security federal prison in Bryan, Texas.<\/p>\n

Holmes regularly asserts her innocence and weighs in on the current incursion of artificial intelligence. She offered advice on screening for pathogens to control the spread of Ebola and other deadly diseases.<\/p>\n

Like Bankman-Fried, she used the social media platform to criticize the Biden administration. She recently praised President Trump\u2019s proposed $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, calling the Biden Justice Department \u201ca weaponized system of injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prisoners are not permitted to post directly on social media. Cell phones are banned and prisoners have been punished for possessing contraband cell phones that have been used to communicate and post on social media. Tablets are now provided in some prisons and jails but there is no access to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X or other platforms.<\/p>\n

Inmates\u2019 messages must be relayed via telephone or in writing to people on the outside who serve as their social media proxies.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the Federal Bureau of Prisons proposed new rules that would punish prisoners who post on social media, even through accounts managed outside the prison by others.<\/p>\n

Prison officials said social media access, direct or indirect, threatened security by allowing prisoners to potentially communicate with gang members or \u201cother unauthorized contacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The restrictive plan received significant pushback from civil rights groups and prisoner advocacy organizations, who said it violated free speech and prevented inmates from using social media to remain connected with family and friends.<\/p>\n

Read more Fox to buy streaming pioneer Roku in a $22 billion deal<\/a><\/p>\n

Facebook and other social media sites, they argued, serve as publishing platforms for essays, poems and stories about life inside prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media provides them with a meaningful way to share their thoughts and experience with the world \u2014 that is, to participate more fully in society,\u201d the Families Against Mandatory Minimums Foundation wrote to the BOP in opposition to the ban.<\/p>\n

The rule remains in limbo.<\/p>\n

Bureau of Prisons spokesman Donald Murphy said the policy \u201cis undergoing review and update.\u201d The agency, he said, is issuing \u201csanctions for violations involving cellphone use connected to social media.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Bankman-Fried and other prominent prisoners are using social media accounts managed by outsiders to try to appease Mr. Trump, who they hope will extend pardons or reduce their sentences before he leaves office.<\/p>\n

Bankman-Fried recently posted about the S&P 500 reaching another all-time high on Mr. Trump\u2019s watch and noted much slower growth at the same point in Mr. Biden\u2019s presidency. In March, he posted about the Iran war, noting, \u201cThe costs of striking Iran are real, but so is the nuclear threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

On June 12, an appeals court upheld his 25-year sentence, rejecting his claim of an unfair trial.<\/p>\n

His family has sought a pardon from the president through back channels, and Bankman-Fried formally sent a request to the Justice Department earlier this month seeking a pardon after completion of his sentence.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump has granted pardons and clemency to more than 1,600 convicts during his second term, including Changpeng Zhao, who headed the cryptocurrency exchange Binance and served four months in prison for failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program, in violation of the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act.<\/p>\n

Holmes is also posting pro-Trump messages on social media. In addition to criticizing the Biden administration, she recently reposted a White House message from Mr. Trump warning Iran against harming Americans under the caption, \u201cNO GAMES.\u201d<\/p>\n

She applied for a commutation of her sentence last year. It is pending before the Justice Department\u2019s Office of the Pardon Attorney.<\/p>\n

Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, a.k.a. Joe Exotic, recently made an appeal to the president on Instagram while serving a 21-year prison sentence for trying to hire someone to murder a business rival.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump joked during his first term about pardoning him after millions tuned in to watch the Netflix documentary \u201cTiger King\u201d about Maldonado-Passage\u2019s privately operated zoo and his battle with big cat sanctuary operator Carole Baskin.<\/p>\n

Now, Maldonado-Passage is trying to reach the president through his own Instagram account, operated by an outside team of supporters.<\/p>\n

In a grainy video from inside a Fort Worth federal prison, he told a visitor over a black prison phone that he\u2019ll settle for less than a pardon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want my sentence commuted and clemency and time served. And that would be what makes this wrong a right in America because I\u2019m a political prisoner.\u201d Under the video post, Instagram commenters debated his guilt or innocence and whether he deserved his freedom. The prisoner himself also chimed in on the conversation: \u00a0\u201cBe my voice,\u201d his Instagram handle posted. \u201cPlease get this to Trump, love you all thanks for all of the support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump outlines July 4 D.C. rally plans: \u2018Do not miss it\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Famous inmates serving hard time in prison are posting on social media with the help of friends on the outside, hoping to influence their public image, raise money to challenge their convictions, or in some cases, seek clemency from President Trump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[1400,1402,1401,1171],"class_list":["post-2029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-elizabeth-holmes","tag-jodi-arias","tag-joe-exotic","tag-sam-bankman-fried"],"yoast_head":"\nPosting from prison: Jailbirds get their say from behind bars on social media - Home Buyer Relocation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=2029\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Posting from prison: Jailbirds get their say from behind bars on social media - 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