Alex Murdaugh loses prison phone privileges after lawyer records phone call for documentary

Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh has lost his phone privileges and his prison tablet computer after his lawyer recorded him reading his journal entries on a call for a documentary about his case, South Carolina Corrections Department officials said Wednesday. Prison policy prohibits inmates from talking to the media without permission because the agency “believes that victims of crime should not have to see or hear the person who victimized them or their family member on the news,” state prisons spokeswoman Chrysti Shain said in a statement. The media interview violation, along with another violation for using a different inmate's password to make a telephone call, are prison discipline issues and not a crime, Shain said.