187Gangsters reveals the daily lives of prisoners

Warning: Some links in this article contain graphic and sometimes disturbing content.

A few months ago, accounts under the name "187Gangsters" (sometimes spelled with a "z") started cropping up on several social networks. Followers of 187Gangsters* could see a collection of cellphone-quality videos and photos, all claiming to have been taken in jail.

Cellphones are forbidden behind bars, so prisoners on 187Gangsters are risking solitary confinement in order to post their selfies. But to them, the chance to share their lives with the outside world through social media is worth the risk.

We called one of the moderators of the site—we call him Tony—who runs the 187Gangsters accounts from his prison cell.

"It helps a lot, you know, just for having contact with your family, with the outside. It's not for weird things, for criminal things," Tony explained.

Tony said there are several ways to smuggle a cellphone into prisons. Some of these methods are less sophisticated that one might expect: in the example Tony gave us, mobile phones are simply thrown over the fence into the yard where the prisoners take their daily walks. Afterwards, it's just a matter of inserting a prepaid SIM card with enough data to post photos and videos—because, as Tony noted, there are "no prisons with wi-fi."

Tony said he receives videos and photos from prisoners around the world who wish to be featured on 187Gangsters. Not all of them are published: certain things, like violence, are monitored. "If it's a little bit, a couple of slaps, okay, we'll post it," he said. "But if it's really beating up somebody hard, then we don't post it."

The diversity of content on 187Gangsters reflects different aspects of life in prison. Some posts are harmless and reminiscent of typical social media posts seen in any online community, such as narrated cell tours or shout-outs to fellow prisoners across the world. Others remind viewers of the violent side of incarceration: videos of fights over drug payments, pictures of hidden weapon stashes, and calls to beat up inmates imprisoned for certain kinds of crimes, such as child abuse.

To Tony, all these elements are important to help paint a more realistic picture of life behind bars.

"It's like prison life, exposed. We want to show the people that prison is not like a hotel. 23 hours in the cell, you only got one hour [for] air... The phone, it kills the time. So with the phone, you make some videos, you talk to your family, you talk to your children, you talk to your friends. So it helps a lot."

*At the time of this posting, the 187Gangsters website was suspended; the group has made a new Facebook Page, and kept their Instagram, Twitter and YouTube accounts.