US inmate posts TikTok video seeking pen pals. Prison officials can’t stop her

A file photo of a prison in Nanterre. Vanlith isn’t the only person incarcerated within the Idaho Department of Correction looking for pen pals. A search by the Statesman found multiple other videos posted on TikTok. — AFP

In a 15-second TikTok video, a blonde woman in a white T-shirt appears. She asks for men or women to reach out to her if they’d “like to talk” and, at the end, blows a kiss to the camera.

Over the next few days, the brief social media post went viral. By Friday, it garnered roughly 3.7 million views. The video came from an unlikely source – a 43-year-old woman incarcerated within the Idaho Department of Correction’s South Idaho Correctional Institution south of Boise.