Jose Ariel Rivera, 31, is currently serving out a 10-year sentence in the Bennettsville Evans Corrections Institute. However, Rivera currently has Prison officials mystified as to how he keeps gaining access to Facebook and posting live stream videos.

Inmate having the time of his life in prison?

Rivera is serving time for a burglary conviction dating from 2014, but judging from the Facebook Live video below, it looks like he’s enjoying himself behind bars. The video shows the inmate giving the camera the middle finger, as a fellow inmate waves a knife.

On the video, Rivera can be heard to say they are alive, and then goes on to take viewers on a tour of the halls inside the jail. He also rants about his “baby momma,” saying she is “tripping” and watching him on the video. Rivera says she loves him. In fact, he says everyone loves him in prison, even with the big knives. At that point, the inmate holds a knife up to the camera.

There is reportedly a second video, where Rivera is heard to threaten a man who has been talking to his child’s mother. As reported by KHOU, Rivera has recently been very active on social media. Besides the Facebook Live videos, he has also updated his profile photo and shared various updates on his Facebook timeline.

According to that report, the last post was made on Thursday morning.

KHOU spoke to a prison spokesperson, who told them officials have been “vocal” about the possession of cell phones and other contraband, not only in the South Carolina prison system but throughout the country. The spokesperson said Rivera’s Facebook Live videos are an example of how inmates can gain unfettered access to the outside world, saying the Federal Communications Commission should give prisons authority to block cell phone signals.

Inmate regularly punished for cell phone use but does it again

According to a report by WIS-TV, Rivera has been in trouble a number of times over the last five months relating to unauthorized cell phone access and social media violations. The prison punished him by taking away his canteen, television and visitation privileges, but this doesn’t seem to stop him.

Naturally, his possession of the knife shown in the video footage is also extremely troubling.

An investigation has now been launched by the South Carolina Department of Corrections in an effort to discover how Rivera keeps gaining access to contraband cellphones and also how the knife he was holding up to the camera could be smuggled into the prison.
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