Woman shares ‘real reason’ she always kept a Bible in prison: ‘That is so cruel’

A formerly incarcerated person revealed why she always kept a Bible in prison. 

TikToker Keri Blakinger identifies as a “felon” and a reporter. She shared the “real reason” she always had a religious text on hand when she was serving time. But it’s not the reason you may think. 

@keribla

The ~real~ reason I always had a Bible in prison. #jail #prisontiktok #bible #prisontok #felonsoftiktok

♬ Jesus Walks – Kanye West

“I’m an atheist, but when I was in jail and prison, I always had a Bible with me. I know that sounds weird, but here’s why,” she explained. “We all knew that when you got transferred from jail to prison, the only thing that you could bring was a religious book. And the only religious book that we had around that jail was Bibles.” 

Blakinger opened up the pages of her prison Bible to reveal numbers and addresses for lawyers. She explained that if you couldn’t remember all the numbers and names you needed, the only way to keep them was to hide them in a Bible.

“You couldn’t bring any addresses with you from jail to prison, and sometimes not from one jail to the other,” Blakinger said. “So we all knew to write the addresses that were important to us in the margins.”

She explained in the comment section that the notes in the margins had to be a secret because “they would take the book if you altered it or if there were names of other prisoners.” 

People on TikTok empathized with Blakinger’s experience. 

“Wow, that is so cruel. It seems like cutting people off from their support system is the absolute worst thing you could do,” a user commented

“That is such a bizarre and twisted rule they have! Very wise to write them in the Bible and bring them that way,” another said

“Prison is so dehumanizing. Y’all are so smart for writing addresses in the Bible,” a person wrote

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