NEA Report says that Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington of Jonesboro wasn’t pleased to learn that photographs had circulated on Facebook of what appeared to be a state prison inmate holding drugs.
The photos were believed to have been transmitted by cell phone and the inmate, serving a sentence for a 2017 homicide, also was believed to have used the phone to send text messages
Cell phones and drugs are not allowed in prisons, in case you wondered. But both have managed to find their way inside the fences, whether from visitors, employees or planned drops on prison perimeters. Dozens of deaths in the prison have been linked to use of the synthetic drug K2.
The inmate under suspicion, according to NEA Report, is Austin Ivy, 18, serving a sentence in the East Arkansas regional prison at Brickeys for the 2017 killing of Alicia Carr of Jonesboro.
NEA Report’s Stan Morris followed this report up late Friday night with news that Ellington had gotten in touch with prison officials. According to the update, prison officials searched Ivy’s cell and found a phone, but no drugs. He was reportedly transferred to solitary confinement for six months.
Morris observes that prisoners using phones to post on Facebook perhaps should reconsider making their posts “public” to all.