How Prison Inmates Get on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Inside the belly of America’s prison-industrial complex it’s harder for inmates to live online the same way—especially since they’re not allowed to have cell phones—but in practice, they’re all over social media

Recently, I called an inmate in the California state prison system to get the low-down on the availability of smartphones in prison, what they’re used for, and how much they cost. My source told me that prisoners are posting to Facebook, uploading videos and photos to Instagram, and tweeting directly from their cell blocks. There have been plenty of reports about this trend, but most of them have centered around the use of contraband and illegal cell phones and the prison authorities’ attempts to combat their introduction and use.

But as a former prisoner I know that you don’t need a cell phone to gain access to social media. I began my career as a writer from inside, enjoying all the social media platforms available to people on the outside. With the growth of the internet, the world has opened up, even to prisoners. The technological advances we take for granted have made their way into the darkest corners of America. With most prisoners enjoying access (of a sort) to email these days, it’s made it that much easier for them to get on social media.

“I have been incarcerated for the past 12 and a half years for bank robbery, a crime that I committed when I was 23 years old,” says John “Judge” Broman, a 35-year-old from Pittsburgh serving an 18-year sentence at USP Hazelton in West Virginia. “Coming of age in the penitentiary caused me to lose touch with pretty much everyone I ever knew while I was free.”

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