Prisoners are using secretly held phones to broadcast their lives on social media, with some interviewing cellmates like jailhouse Paxmans and others performing Jackass-style stunts. Some show off their rapping skills and a few give Jamie Oliver a run for his money by showcasing just what can be cooked in a prison kettle.
There are thousands of prison videos on TikTok – often with the hashtag #prisontok – as well as on YouTube and Instagram, with what appears to be complete disregard for the victims of inmates’ crimes.
One prisoner has his own YouTube series called HMP Interviews, where he grills people he meets inside about their crimes and trials. One of his subjects last year was Ryan McPhee, who was jailed for 16 years in 2019 for chopping off a stranger’s hand using a machete in an unprovoked attack.
Another interviewee was Thomas Frazer, who was sentenced to 21 years in 2019 for blinding a man by stabbing him in the eye with a bottle and setting another man on fire. In the video, he complains that his sentence is too long and that people in court started clapping when he received it.
After being alerted to the interviews by the Guardian, YouTube added an age restriction so they cannot be viewed by children, but it did not take them down. A spokesperson said: “We take user safety seriously and have guidelines that prohibit content promoting violent or graphic content. Upon review, the video has been age-restricted.”
On a TikTok account called hmp5starchef, an anonymous prisoner posts videos of dishes he rustles up including burgers, wraps and curries. Other accounts show just what you can do with a prison kettle, including turning it into a deep fat fryer for samosas.
A few years ago, a prisoner with dwarfism who went by the name Likkleman, gathered tens of thousands of followers on Instagram by broadcasting stunts and dances from his cell.
There are also videos online of convicted sex offenders being tortured and beaten up on the wings.
David Navarro started the YouTube channel Delinquent Nation in 2019 while nearing the end of a 10-year sentence for armed robbery. He would interview fellow prisoners about the worst things they had seen in jail, what their first night was like – “I was so scared, I thought I’d get raped in the shower,” said one – and how they rated the prison food.
“I started the channel because I was fed up with the mainstream media’s false narrative about prison life. I had watched enough prison documentaries to know that before the cameras arrive they have the cleaners doing a crazy clean, and they only let ‘enhanced’ prisoners out of their cell. They want to make it look cushty,” said Navarro, who made a Channel 4 programme this year called The Secret Life of Prisons and now does legitimate YouTube interviews with prisoners after their release.
He said prisoners tried to act tough in front of the cameras but the truth was “no one likes it in there, really”.
Navarro said prison staff knew he ran a YouTube channel but never found a phone in his cell. “They knew it was me. They used to come to my landing and say ‘what are you delinquents doing?’ and ‘when is the next episode out?’.”
Section 40D of the Prison Act 1952 says it is an offence to broadcast from a jail without authorisation. Prisoners can be given an extra 42 days on their sentence if they are caught with mobile phones, but more often have privileges removed for the same time period. Prison guidelines say all cells should be searched at least once a month, but staff shortages mean this often does not happen.
“Smartphones are not easy to get in prison,” Navarro said. “If there are 60 people on a wing, maybe four or five have smartphones.”
He said a few were thrown over the prison wall protected by cushions, or arrive by drone, but most were brought in by corrupt officers or other prison staff, such as teachers.
They carry a high price tag. “In a prison where there are loads of smartphones around, you’re looking at maybe £1,000. In somewhere that security is tighter, like Belmarsh, you might pay up to £3,000,” Navarro said.
TikTok declined to comment, but several videos flagged to the company by the Guardian were taken down on Tuesday. Instagram also declined to comment, but a source at its parent company, Meta, said the firm “works with law enforcement to review content shared with us”.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Phones are not tolerated in prisons and those who break the rules face tough punishment – including extra time behind bars. We work with social media companies to remove videos and our £100m investment in airport-style security has helped us uncover more than 28,000 attempts to smuggle contraband – including phones – behind bars.”
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