French prison has become a “holiday camp”, guards have warned, after inmates posted more than 100 selfies on Facebook showing them posing with wads of cash, dope and mobile phones, reports The Telegraph.
Two investigations have been launched this week into how the photographs and video clips featuring the inmates of Baumettes prison near Marseille, southern France, reached the social media website, and how the objects got through security.
In one image, a prisoner in Y-fronts waves around a large bundle of 50 euro notes; another photo shows an inmate smoking a hookah and playing with a mobile phone while another shows cannabis on a table in the prison.
A fourth shows a group of muscular, bare-chested inmates in the prison courtyard posing as if in a boy’s band. According to La Provence, the local newspaper that broke the story, photos of knives also exist.
The Facebook page entitled “MDR o Baumettes” (LOL in the Baumettes) had garnered almost 5,000 likes in the past few weeks before it was closed down after prison staff stumbled on the page over New Year.
While it may have won fans on social media, the Facebook page sparked concern among prison authorities, who launched an internal probe while also filing a criminal complaint.
“We took immediate action after discovering this page by opening an investigation and informing the prosecutors in Marseille,” said Philippe Perron, the local prisons administrative chief.