Prisoners penning internet personal ads from behind bars

None — They might be in prison for rape or murder, but some inmates are not letting that stop them from reaching out for some companionship.

Some inmates are posting pictures and personal ads online with the help of the people charged with guarding them. North Carolina Department of Corrections officials have admitted the websites can be dangerous, but have yet to step in and regulate the inmates' actions.

Carol Carson was victimized by one of those inmates, her ex-boyfriend David Hanno, and she constantly relives the night Hanno showed up at her home.

"He come to my door, knocked. I answered to a gun right at my face," she said.

Hanno fired the gun at Jarrett Schenck, the man Carlson was about to marry.

"He shot the man in the back, spun him around and then executed him in the head," she said.

Hanno was convicted of the murder and sent to prison.

Carlson thought she would never see him again. Then she found his picture and personal ad on write-a-prisoner.com, one of several inmate pen pal sites.

"It just makes me sick. (It) makes me mad because I know that person right there had such an impact, devastating impact on my life and my family's life," Carlson said.

Channel 9 shared the pen pal profiles with Roger Moon at the Department of Corrections.

"Any time you have communication with the outside like this that we don't have control in, it's a concern," he said.

Among those concerns are North Carolina inmates – some of whom are in federal prison for assault, rape and murder – openly soliciting intimacy.

One inmate wrote on his profile, "My virginity needs a woman – yeah, an incarceration that long."

Another wrote, "Hello Ladies, I'm looking for a sexy, down to earth, cool, Caucasian woman who is between the ages of 18 to 42, weighs 100-319 (pounds) and height 4'11" to 6'5"."

Many seem unremorseful, even boastful, of their crimes, like the inmate in prison for murder who wrote he was "as handsome as the devil himself."

The photos used in the profiles present another issue.

The DOC said that most of the photos were taken by prison staff inside the prisons. Moon said the pictures are a small concern, but said the pictures are also sent to family and friends as a way of communication.

DOC officials said the agency has no power to stop family and friends from posting the pictures of the pen pal sites. The DOC also said it is powerless to shut down the sites.

"People just need to be wary of these sites because of the potential of being scammed," Moon said.

He added that people need to make sure they do not send money or provide personal information to the inmates.

"What he's trying to do is reel people in. It's fake and it's phony," Carlson said.

Hanno is currently serving a life sentence for his crimes, but claims in his profile he will be released soon. Carlson said Hanno has even written her recently, but said she is not interested in being pen pals with the man who killed her fiancé.

"He says he has no remorse for what he did. He says the only remorse he has is that he didn't kill me," Carlson said. "Is that the kind of person you want to be involved with or even linked to?"

In investigating the sites, Channel 9 was able to dig up the names, addresses and phone numbers of the people behind the sites. That information was sent to the DOC.

The DOC responded with this statement:

"While DOC does not approve or support inmates engaging in this activity, we have no legal means to prevent it. If we become aware of an inmate trying to defraud or scam someone through a website, we report that to the website operator and law enforcement. We simply don't have the resources to continually search social networking and pen-pal sites looking for violators."

WSOC