Prison TikTok and the Penal Imagination: Challenges of Rhetorical Restructuring

• In Event: 20859 - Prisons and the Production of Lives and Deaths

Abstract

The rise of social media in the digital age has provided incarcerated individuals with a new, albeit prohibited, avenue for communication with the outside world. Through contraband cell phones, prisoners have gained access to social media platforms like the video-sharing app TikTok, where content under the subgenre known as "Prison TikTok" (#PrisonTok, #PrisonTikTok) has garnered billions of views. While some scholars suggest that digital visibility can disrupt prisoner invisibilization and mobilize awareness of systemic injustices, external advocacy for prisoners’ rights remains stagnant. This paper examines the complex relationship between prisoner-to-public communications on social media and the broader American penal imagination. Using structuration theory (Giddens 1983, 1984), structuring theory (Orlikowski 1992), and the concept of online platforms as rhetorical arenas (Vatnøy 2016), this study investigates how social media can structure, amplify, and constrain prisoner agency. Conducting a narrative analysis of 491 tweets discussing Prison TikTok, this research identifies prevailing themes of disdain, voyeurism, humor, and objectification in public reactions to incarcerated individuals’ content. The findings reveal a paradox: while social media allows prisoners to challenge historical barriers to visibility, public engagement often reinforces dominant punitive logics, epistemic injustice, and moral exclusion. The platform's algorithmic design and entertainment-driven culture further entrench incarcerated individuals as subjects of spectacle rather than agents of reform. In the absence of a clarified problem ownership framework and sustained critical discourse, increased digital visibility alone cannot meaningfully restructure carceral narratives. However, Prison TikTok marks a pivotal moment in the evolving penal imagination, highlighting both the potential and limitations of digital platforms in shaping public perceptions of incarceration.

Author

• Claire Maria Corsten, Columbia University