Restrictions on Computer or Internet Use as Part of a Sentence

Jamie recently blogged here about ad hoc conditions of probation, i.e., conditions other than the statutory ones. Because I'm interested in criminal law and technology, I wanted to add a follow-up post about restrictions on computer or internet use as part of a criminal sentence. It's a timely topic, both because of Jamie's post and because of last week's decision by the United States Supreme Court in City of Ontario v. Quon, in which the Court observed that certain forms of electronic communications may be "essential means or necessary instruments for self-expression, even self-identification." And that gets right to the heart of the issue. On the one hand, computers and other electronic devices are ubiquitous and essential parts of the modern world. Restricting a defendant's access to electronic technology and to the internet dramatically impacts the defendant's job prospects, ability to sustain a social network, and ability to complete daily tasks such as banking or renewing a driver's license. On the other hand, computers and the internet are, for some people, dangerous instrumentalities of crime, whether child pornography or eBay fraud. Balancing these considerations, should hackers be denied computer access? Should people who possess child pornography? If so, for how long, and with what, if any exceptions? This Wired magazine article is a nice, brief overview of the problem if the basic outlines aren't clear enough already. I'll just add a few additional points. Surprisingly, I couldn't find any law on this issue in North Carolina. In State v. Howell, 166 [...]