Why does the Prison Life content on TikTok feel so familiar?

Others on the platform post similar videos. One demonstrates how to make a Prison Potato Log that looks like a giant tamale; another is preparing a prison wrap that is similar. There are even numerous cooking videos by people still in prison: dishes being prepared using methods that may or may not be legal in prison, the process being recorded on phones that are most likely not legal. (You can watch clips that appear to show people frying empanadas in a can, boiling eggs in a plastic bag, or grilling wraps on a metal bunk.) The videos are typically upbeat, and often have a hint of nostalgia. Marci Marie, for example, says the cookie rolls were a special treat when someone was celebrating.

Cooking is just a subset of the TikTok content created by those formerly (and currently) incarcerated. Some devote themselves to the camera and seriously educate viewers about life in prison, telling stories and answering questions. Marci Marie has provided many replies, including "Is it safe to make friends in prison?" (yes) and responded to a message on how to iron clothes (soak in water, press with a cup or pot lid, dry under the bed ). Others describe the day they were released, how holidays were celebrated, or the best form for burpees. The more you explore prison life content on TikTok, the more it seems to reflect all of the platform's popular genres — cooking, life advice, bored dancing, workout tips — until life inside doesn't seem so different from life outside.

America has none Lack of narratives of prison life, ranging from centuries-old memoirs and novels to more recent film and television. But in recent decades, most of these portrayals have focused on the most shocking aspects of maximum security prisons. Reality shows and documentaries - National Geographic's "Lockdown", MSNBC's "Lockup", A&E's "Behind Bars", Netflix's "I Am a Killer" - often or exclusively focus on the worst and most dangerous facilities, highlighting outbreaks, civil unrest and violent conflicts. TV dramas like "Oz" and "Prison Break" have done the same. America's incarcerated population rose sharply in the 1980s and 1990s, but only with the arrival of Netflix in 2013 "Orange is the new black" that television had a detailed account of daily life in a minimum-security prison.

This focus on extreme conditions certainly distorts our perception of prison life. We are shown hostile, alien, and devalued environments ("Another World" with "Its Own Rules," as the intro to an episode of "Behind Bars" puts it), full of violent, dangerous people ("Murderers, Robbers, and Rapists") ', according to the intro to an episode of 'Lockdown'). These appalling conditions are undoubtedly real, both in the documented prisons and in other prisons. But when it comes to the system as a whole and life within, they may not be entirely representative. The United States incarcerates people at a strikingly high rate - by most estimates, more than any other nation on the planet. A majority of the 1.2 million people in our prisons are serving shorter sentences in less secure facilities, often for nonviolent crimes. Their day-to-day experiences, even the somber ones, tend to go unnoticed in prison dramas that transcend prison life—the flawed, expensive video calls; the inedible food; the painful hours in solitary confinement – ​​for a maelstrom of assassination plots, escape plans and sexual violence.

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