Although it’s a niche topic, covered by less than a hundred channels, “Prison YouTube” is turning some ex-cons into influencers
Photo: _hijiki_/Getty Images Jessica Kent was detoxing off methamphetamine and oxycodone in an Arkansas jail when she found out she was pregnant. Three months later, the guards took her to a doctor’s office for a prenatal check-up where people took pictures of her in the waiting room, the chained-up inmate with a baby bump.
While men on Prison YouTube tend to focus on survival, and how to navigate the unspoken rules of a dangerous environment, the women-run channels talk more about the trauma they’ve endured in prison and how they’re healing. They disclose mental-health struggles, talk about their families, and sometimes even cry on camera. On the surface, the women of Prison YouTube are rewarded for marketing vulnerability, not unlike other YouTubers that focus on, say, beauty or wellness.
In another video, she explains the process of bonding with her daughter after foster care. The 30-year-old had done multiple stints in jail since her teen years, before the most recent drug charge that landed her locked up and pregnant. When she got out, her daughter was 18 months old, and it took another year before regaining full custody.
More than the chance to hustle up income and a following, these YouTube channels give formerly incarcerated women a way to develop support systems that may be too uncomfortable to forge in the real world. And without them, there’s a much higher chance they’ll reoffend and go back to prison. That need for community is often difficult to fulfill, as some newly released female offenders are likely to isolate themselves from others due to stigma and shame.
“The manager said I’d never be able to work anywhere with children, and I lost it. I had been out of prison for seven years,” Randall said. “I hadn’t been in trouble, not even a speeding ticket. It didn’t matter that I did volunteer community work or looked after children at my church for years. No matter what I do, no matter how much education I have, no matter how much time it’s been since my prison time, I’ll never be able to be a social worker.
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