As we make it over the hump of winter quarter, summer doesn’t seem too far off. And along with tans, better tasting fruit, and beach bonfires summer means the arrival of the next season of Orange is the New Black. This addicting, binge worthy show has become more than a fun Netflix show as it does something most crime shows don’t. It looks more at criminals post investigation and arrest instead of during the hunt where most shows are from law enforcement’s perspective and have the audience rooting for them to catch the “bad” guys.This has forced people to look at criminal justice system in a different light and it has had a very humanizing effect. OITNB got some things right about the modern American prison system while it misses the mark on some other issues. So here are some of the things they got right and wrong.
What They Got Right:
1. That most inmates are in there for drug related crimes.
Tasty, V, Daya, Alex, Piper, Nikki, and countless others in the show and in real life are in prison for drug related crimes. According to DrugWarFacts.org as of 2014 around 50% of people imprisoned in the U.S are there for drug related crimes. In the past, prisons were dominated by people who most would agree caused a danger to others, those who committed violent crimes like murder, rape, and assault. But since the war on drugs and the implementation of mandatory minimums prisons are overflowing with drug addicts who instead of getting the treatment they need get sentences far longer than they deserve.
2. The power of the Correctional Officers is often unchecked.
As viewers we hated the power, misogyny, and overt jerkiness of the men working in the prison, especially Mendez, aka, Pornstache, and unfortunately it isn’t just these fictional characters who are groped, raped, and harassed by the men in charge of their safety. As Healy points out to Piper, no one would ever believe an inmate over an officer which leads to most of the abuse going unreported, but in 2001, Human Rights Watch reported about 140,000 verified incidents of guard-inmate rape in U.S Prisons. There aren’t a lot of love stories like Daya and Bennet’s, but there definitely is a lot of heartbreak.3
3. Readjustment is hard if not impossible.
I don’t think anyone would want to go back to prison, but often there isn’t a better option. When Tasty got out we saw how hard it was for her to find somewhere to stay and get a job, both things necessary to transitioning back to normal life. Programs that help transition ex-felons back into society are pretty much nonexistent. Once convicted of a crime it’s hard to get housing, employment, and government assistance so if they can’t survive through conventional means it only leaves illegal methods and the cycle of imprisonment continues. They served their sentences and yet they never get to escape the label of criminal.
4. Solitary confinement.
Both Piper and Janae were thrown into solitary confinement for arbitrary reasons which I shockingly found out isn’t too rare of an occurrence. A form of psychological torture, inmates are cut off from all social interaction and for what? Often for no reason at all. Sometimes they are told it’s for their own protection in the case of sex offenders, minors, and other at risk inmates so they don’t get mugged, shanked, or raped. Piper was only in there for a few days and she was already close to breaking. I can’t even imagine this reality
5. Everyone has a story.
These women are just like us. They live, love, laugh, and make mistakes. As the female CO points out to Piper there aren’t a lot of differences between the people on the inside and the people on the outside because everyone does stupid stuff. It’s important to see inmates as human because this system already does all it can to dehumanize and depersonalize them and it’s easy to forget that they are more than a pair of khakis, more than just their mistake. But they are.
What They Got Wrong:
1. The racial proportions.
The show makes it seem like the racial cliques are all pretty much equal but the demographics in prison are completely skewed by the systemic racism that permeates the criminal justice system. With the number of African Americans in prison at triple that of whites the show leaves out this key aspect of prison dynamics.
2. Life without parole prisoners and opportunities.
Yoga Jones, one of the more likable characters, is in prison with a life sentence for murdering a child. In the show she in charge of the Yoga program which contradicts the reality for most LWOP prisoners. Because of their sentences most prisons don’t allow those with life sentences to partake in rehabilitation programs like education and job training workshops because if they aren’t leaving prisons don’t want to spend money on them. So Yoga Jones in real life would just be regular Jones.
3. That mental illness is addressed.
Suzanne, affectionately known as Crazy Eyes, talks about how her parents have an agreement with the warden about when she has troubles with reality she won’t be penalized for her outbreaks. If only this was true for most prisoners with mental illness. The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Statistics accounts that around 45% of federal prison inmates have some sort of mental illness. And of these few get the treatment they need. Mostly their “quirks” are just chalked up to their criminal behavior and not part of mental illness, and that’s just crazy. (Pun intended)
4. Visitation rates.
It seems like everyone gets visitors on a pretty regular basis which makes a prison sentence seem almost bearable, and maybe that’s true if people actually got that many visitors. Prisons aren’t usually located in convenient nearby locales which means a long drive for many loved ones. This necessitates and car and the ability to pay for gas. Also it means having to get time off work, coordinate your schedule around visiting hours and many other obstacles to see a loved one. It’s not always as easy as Larry, an unemployed writer, getting into his car paid for by his parents and going to see Piper.
5. Affording commissary.
Prison isn’t that bad if they have access to buy luxuries like snickers and headphones, right? Well maybe, the ability to buy things at commissary probably does make the time there better but many prisoners are poor and can’t afford anything at the commissary, and the minimal salaries they make from working in the prison barely adds up to a toothbrush. Not everyone is as lucky as Piper with her shower shoes, cups, candy, and headphones, a commissary queen.
Maybe this upcoming season you'll look at Litchfield prison with a more critical lens about this fictional prison and the thousands of real ones populating this country.
