Netflix's Unlocked: What are the coffee sticks that prisoners smoke in jail? Explained

Coffee sticks in Netflix's Unlocked have been one of the many intriguing aspects viewers noticed. The documentary series has not been without its controversies which is hardly surprising, considering its premise of allowing jail inmates a degree of freedom not seen in prisons countrywide.

Coffee sticks themselves are hardly unique to the series, but people have been raising questions about the very act of smoking these objects.

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Coffee sticks in Unlocked are essentially coffee cigarettes

Coffee sticks are, in essence, cigarettes made of coffee. In Netflix's Unlocked, these sticks are substances that the inmates use to get a rush, or, to put in colloquial terms, get high. In several scenes, the inmates of the experiment were spotted smoking these strange substances.

The idea of smoking does not blend well with coffee, which is normally a substance that is consumed as a drink. However, in Netflix's Unlocked, the inmates are spotted using paper towels that they would pass water over, before mixing instant coffee grinds in the same. This is followed by their attempts to spread the mixture all over the towel.

Following this attempt, the inmates would go on to stick the towels in the microwave in an effort to dry them out. The final step involved rolling tobacco weed or other narcotic substances in the towel, before smoking them.

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What is Netflix's Unlocked about?

Unlocked, an eight-episode series released in 2024, features a jail experiment organized by Sheriff Higgins from Pulaski County Detention Facility in Little Rock. To humanize the inmates, the sheriff decided to create an experimental system where the inmates were allowed to come and go within the jail wells instead of being locked for 23 hours every day.

In Higgins' words, the experiment was a success, and it aimed to help the prisoners learn to get along with each other. Additionally, he wanted to help them become a part of the outside community, by seeing the potential for reducing murder rates in Little Rock, and by decreasing the stress felt by the inmates inside an overcrowded jail.

The documentary consists of eight episodes, which feature interviews and close-ups. However, it had also welcomed a lot of controversy from local officials who expressed shock at Higgins' efforts to allow the entry of a documentary crew. In their words, Higgins had no authority to do so.