Dutch inmate posts vlogs of prison life
In the media image: TSD Studio on Unsplash+
A prisoner from Eindhoven who posted vlogs about his life in prison is attracting thousands of viewers on TikTok and other social media. Esther van Ginneken commented on regional news site ‘Omroep Brabant’: 'Contact is a human necessity.'
Danny van den Hoogen's videos attract thousands of viewers on TikTok and other social media. The images show his living conditions in the prisons of Hasselt and Roermond. A prison spokesperson was clearly not happy about the videos. According to Esther van Ginneken, prisoners often manage to have a phone: 'It’s very popular contraband. Phones that are smuggled in can be bought for a lot of money.' But the associate professor says that anyone getting caught risks an additional punishment. 'For example, two weeks in an isolation cell, though all kinds of things play a role in determining the punishment.'
According to Van Ginneken, phones that are smuggled into prisons are used to keep in touch with the home front, kill time, watch pornography and in some cases even to organise illegal activities. Prisoners feel a huge need to have a phone: 'Especially in today's world, where a large part of our lives plays out via mobile phones. That doesn’t go away in prison. Then you lose out so much when it comes to having contact.' She says that one solution would be to install landline phones in cells. 'Then you wouldn’t have to get a phone smuggled in. Contact is a human necessity.'
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Read the full article on Omroep Brabant (in Dutch)