View this image '
Netflix
Jenji Kohan, the creator of Netflix's new hit seriesOrange Is The New Black, had to grapple with a pretty serious conundrum: How do you make a compulsively watchable series about a milieu whose defining characteristic is boredom? And yet, the show's writers have pulled it off. Of course, they have had to take some liberties; the series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir but is highly fictionalized. So what did they get right about prison life, and what did they miss? Thoughmy year in federal prison was quite unlike Piper Kerman's - largely on account of the differences between men's and women's prisons - here's my assessment of whereOrange nailed it and where it missed the mark.
3. Here's what they get right: 4. Small things can have outsize consequences - in positive and negative ways. View this image '
Netflix
A tiny slight or infraction in prison can lead to serious problems. Piper's offhand remark about the quality of prison cooking leads to Red starving her out for two weeks, and her vaguely dirty dancing with Alex leads to the SHU (Special Housing Unit - solitary confinement). I can verify this; I saw a guy get slocked - struck by a sock wrapped around a padlock - for cutting in line. Kissinger once said that in academia, 'the battles are so bitter because the stakes are so small,' and that is doubly true in prison.
1/4
Conversely, given the general privation, the smallest kindness in prison can go a long way. Piper's creation of medicated lotion for Red's back gets her right with Red and affords her renewed access to food; a few donuts from Counselor Healy, who oversees the Women's Advocacy Council (WAC) are seen by most WAC members as a major coup. One of my main strategies to stay safe (I came in at 117 pounds) was to quietly give stolen tomatoes and onions to certain powerful inmates, which effectively helped me build critical alliances. I never dreamed that a bruised tomato might help save my life.
5. If boredom is one defining feature of prison life, then ingenuity is the other. View this image '
Tumblr
From Sophia's stylish silver shower shoes made from duct tape and Morello's Kool-Aid as mascara/lip gloss to the hooch at Tricia's Irish wake, prisoners learn to make do with less. This echoes my experience. I saw inmates cut hair with toenail clippers (no pimped-out full-service salons like Sophia's!), cook grilled cheese with a laundry room iron, and fashion free weights from massive boulders in laundry bags and tied around a bar.
6. Prisoners are horny, and they'll pursue sex more persistently than most on the outside.
You might think Crazy Eyes seems, well, crazy, given her dogged pursuit of Chapman despite
2/4
repeated rejection and Piper's invocation of her fiancĂŠ. But then you probably haven't been to prison, where the general assumption is that any romantic commitments on the outside are null and void during one's bid. A hulking, mustachioed guy known as Big C who'd been locked up 15 years pounded the windows of his cell trying to get my attention every day when I came home from my job, and he attended every basketball and softball game I played in for months, whooping each time I made a play. Only the threat of violence from Ville, a cornrowed and feared 315-pound ally of mine, tempered Big C's enthusiasm.
7. The prison doesn't really care about prisoners.
View this image '
Viawifflegif.com
I didn't say more than 10 words in my first month and never spoke unless addressed, which seemed true for most first-time offenders. A couple of Piper's early lines stood out as particularly improbable. One comes when she tells a gaggle of fellow inmates, 'But I read that you're not supposed to...' I cannot believe anyone knowing the stereotype of a white-collar inmate would ever say that. A second line comes when she is informed about her work placement in the electrical shop and brashly tells a CO: 'I think there's been a mistake. I applied to work in the education department.' I also applied to teach in prison, since I had a Ph.D and a decade of experience doing so. But when assigned to the warehouse docks to unload food trucks, I understood that it was no mistake, as I think most would.
14. The racial divide is even more stark. View this image '
Netflix
InOrange, the races eat together, which was exceptionally rare at the Kentucky prison where I spent 2010. I did it my first week when I was the only white guy in my cell block and didn't know
3/4
any other whites; an Aryan Brotherhood member pulled me aside later that day and advised me not to do so again.
15. Snitching is a much bigger deal. View this image '
Viabooksofoitnb.tumblr.com
First, a defendant who named another defendant in a case (Alex and Piper) likely wouldn't be incarcerated together out of concern for retribution attempts. Obviously, though, Alex's presence is critical to the plot. Second, Larry's radio appearance probably would've destroyed her. It's likely that her comments about Crazy Eyes and Miss Claudette would've sparked far more intense and widespread anger than they did. Also, given Piper's obvious willingness to spill beans and her placement on the WAC by Healy, most inmates would've likely concluded (correctly) that Piper tipped COs off to the phone and (incorrectly) that she was culpable for other snitching. Once someone is labeled a prison snitch, his life is essentially over - not just over for a day.
16. You don't tell your family and friends how miserable you are.
4/4 Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)