Orange is the New Black: My Year In A Women's Prison

     The University of Redlands was lucky enough to have Piper Kerman speak on February 19^th,  2015.  Piper Kerman is the author of Orange is the New Black: My Year In A Women’s Prison; the memoir that the hit Netflix series Orange is the New Black is based off.  She was sentenced to 15 months in a women’s prison in Danbury, Connecticut for money-laundering charges.  Her experiences in prison made her the woman she is today and inspired her to dedicate her life’s work to prison reform. 

     The United States is the most incarcerated country in the world.  The sentence for drug offenses is the sole purpose that there has been a 300% increase in prison population since 1980.  This is an example of how our prison system is flawed in the United States.  Prison reform has become a very important topic and Piper Kerman has contributed to the discussion by publishing her book and sharing her experience and what needs to be done at universities like ours. 

     I was lucky enough to have dinner with Ms. Kerman before her lecture as a member of the Convocations & Lectures committee.  She mostly spoke with the faculty, who were also at the dinner, but she shared with us what she is doing nowadays and how she really feels about the Orange is the New Black series on Netflix (She loves the portrayal of the friendships she gained in prison, by the way).  It was an amazing experience being able to sit with her and hear about how much she has done for prison reform, including her current career as an English teacher in a men’s prison in Ohio.

          Piper’s story is not as relatable to the stories we have read in class, but her experience in prison can be related to Sui Sin Far’s, “In The Land of the Free” and how it questions authority in the United States.  In “In The Land of the Free”, Hom Hing and Lae Choo’s son is taken by the governmental authority because of missing documents, aka their son was not an American citizen.  Although Piper’s experience has nothing to do with citizenship, it does question the government and it’s role in incarceration.  Like citizenship, prison reform is a long process. It is not something that is in the news constantly like other policy issues are, but they remain a prominent issue in our day. The issues with the long citizenship process and the issues with prison reform are issues that cannot be solved over night by ordinary people; it takes policy makers and government authority to improve these areas.  Both Piper Kerman and the couple in “In The Land of the Free” had life changing experiences because of the governments’ policies.  Piper became a new woman after her time in prison and Hom Hing and Lae Choo struggled for 10 months to gain possession of their child. 

     Piper Kerman and Hom Hing and Lae Choo had two very different lives, but the experiences with the government, good and bad, affected how they live their life.  It was amazing meeting and hearing Piper Kerman talk about her experiences and the University of Redlands was so lucky to have her!