Kim Kardashian has often said that her passion for prison reform is rooted in her late father’s passion for it, but she’s now revealing that a particularly scandalous teenage memory has played a role, too.
During the March 27 episode of The Kardashians, Kim brought her sister Kendall Jenner, Scott Disick and friend Olivia Pierson with her to Sacramento, Calif. to visit a group of inmates who fight wildfires as a means of expunging their criminal records through a program set up by her friend Scott Budnick.
During the visit, the group got to meet a group of young incarcerated men, all under the age of 26, who are part of the conservation efforts — and when they sat down with them, Kim, 44, had what Kendall called a Legally Blonde moment.
As she got perhaps too candid with the group, Kim recalled one of her first prison visits and how she’d related to a story a young woman told that made her think of a memory from her own teenage years.
“One time, my friend had me go pick up ecstasy at this apartment and like, what if something happened?” Kim said. “I thought to myself, seriously, if some s— went down, I would’ve been able to call my dad and he would’ve helped me. And these people didn’t have that. I really thought to myself, ‘This is just so crazy, these people need help.’”
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She continued, “The more I got into it, the more I heard stories, I was like, oh my God, this is so f—– up, like, how do we help here? And it gets overwhelming because every part of the system is so f—– up. It’s crazy.”
The confession prompted a laugh from Kendall, 29, who told Olivia that Kim was being “so Elle Woods right now” with the NSFW memory in front of several authorities.
In a confessional, Kendall revealed why the story had made her laugh so hard. “I saw the officer like a few people over from [Kim] basically be like [face palm],” she said. “It was so Legally Blonde.”
In a confessional, Kim reflected further on her passion for prison reform work, as she said it “really kind of got sparked with my dad [Robert Kardashian Sr.] and all of the giving back that he would do and just all the place she would take us to help other people. My dad resonates through all of that and I always feel his energy every time I do something like this.”
Kim also said that visits to places like the fire camp “really just is that battery in my back to keep going and to keep fighting for the guys inside and to wanna finish law school and to just keep doing what I’m doing.”
Following her visit with Kendall, Scott and Olivia, Kim wrote about the experience in an Instagram post from August 30 as she shares photos with the firefighters.
“Yesterday I had the amazing opportunity to spend some time with the guys at Pine Grove youth firecamp, and Growlersberg Firecamp Crew 3 and 5. These incredible men are incarcerated firefighters saving our state, homes and communities from fire,” she wrote.
“This program is the first of its kind allowing 18-25 year old incarcerated people to get out of prisons and into a firecamp to serve the community. Through this voluntary program they can fully expunge their felony records when they are released and now can go into firefighting careers when they get out. Thank you so much CDCR and Cal Fire Staff for everything you do to our support these guys and thank you to everyone we met yesterday working so hard at fighting these California fires.”
New episodes of The Kardashians premiere Thursdays at 12 a.m. ET on Hulu.
