She’s In Prison For Raping Two Teen Boys, And She’s In Videos On TikTok

There are TikTok videos from ex-prisoners who answer questions about what life was like behind bars.

There are TikTok videos that get millions of views by showing people’s courtroom reactions as they’re sentenced to prison.

And then there are TikTok videos from people actually inside prison right now.

#PrisonTok can be a source for good, whether by shining light on inhumane conditions or by simply engaging a curious public with the realities of the criminal justice system. But in recent days, it has been receiving new and darker attention following a story from the Idaho Statesman newspaper published on Friday about one local prisoner’s new TikTok account.

Miriah Vanlith, 43, went viral on the platform when she appeared in a video asking for people to write to her at the South Idaho Correctional Institution near Boise.

Vanlith was convicted in 2019 of raping two teenage boys, enticing children over the internet, and distributing a controlled substance to a minor. She raped one 14-year-old boy in 2018 while out on bond for having sexually abused a 15-year-old boy and raping a 17-year-old boy the year before. (The charges related to the 15-year-old were dropped as part of a guilty plea deal). Prison records show she won’t be eligible for parole until 2028.

Prisoners don’t have standard access to the internet, but using a for-profit communications platform called JPay, Vanlith was able to send a video message to someone on the outside, who then posted the clips to a TikTok account on her behalf and in her name.

That’s where one video blew up and received more than 3 million views. The Vanlith account soon had more than 33,000 followers — and has since been shut down. (A TikTok spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on whether the company had removed the account or if the person behind the account had taken it down).

Vanlith’s videos were subsequently stitched by people who were shocked that a prisoner could appear in a TikTok video or disgusted that a convicted sex offender could go viral.

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Writing to the Idaho Statesman (via paid emails sent through JPay), Vanlith said the videos were an attempt to get new pen pals in order to pass the time behind bars, but she declined to say who had helped her set up an account. “I made BIG mistakes in the past, but that doesn’t define who I am,” Vanlith told the Statesman. “I’ve learned and grown a lot in the last five years. I take responsibility for what I’ve done. The…