Orange is the New Black...

[handmade34]

after loving every minute of the show... I picked up the book... http://www.amazon.com/Orange-Is-New-Black-Womens/dp/0385523394

I was especially enthralled with the show because I had worked in a prison about 20 years ago (I found that I 'knew' some of the characters -especially COs- in the show) and also the relevance to how exploitive and abusive the prison system currently is... and now a much needed discussion about mandatory sentencing...


http://piperkerman.com/justice-reform




videos....
http://piperkerman.com/videos

the site her friends created while in prison...
http://thepipebomb.com



love the characters in the show...

[LuvNewcastle]

1. K&R

Seeing as how so many Americans wind up in prisons and jails for a portion of their lives, I think it's important that we have more public discussion about life inside these places and how we can keep people out of them. It's disgusting how many people in this 'free' country are behind bars, and it's really sickening how many people are profiting from their misery.

[handmade34]

2. numbers of people in prison...

how they get there and alternatives to the system should be major discussions... "restorative justice" is a good first step

Restorative justice emphasizes repairing the harm caused by crime. When victims, offenders and community members meet to decide how to do that, the results can be transformational.

http://www.restorativejustice.org

[LuvNewcastle]

3. I think restorative justice is an excellent concept.

It focuses on the victim and the harm caused, but it also seeks to change the criminal and bring him into the community. A program like this would be helpful to everyone by seeking the root causes of the offending behavior and making it less likely to be repeated. There are some crimes for which it probably wouldn't be successful, but I think it could be successful enough that it could really make a difference to society. The goal is for criminals to see themselves as part of a greater whole rather than an isolated and alienated individual. Of course, for some of the crimes we have today, there isn't a real victim out there to focus on. Penalties for those 'crimes' should be eliminated or radically reduced.

[handmade34]

5. "victimless crimes"

just can't figure out prison time for that one...

I have seen restorative justice work VERY well first hand!... it makes so much sense

[fletchthedubs]

7. I did 3 years for marijuana distribution in a federal prison.

I went in at 19 years old and because of my job in the Air Force I was considered an escape risk and spent my entire time in solitary. I got out at 22. Three years of what I consider to be torture for selling a few bags of weed to consenting adults. I'll never get that time back and time on the outside hasn't healed any of the psychological damage accumulated over that time. Being brought back into the "community" that locked me in a cage for 3 years... I'll pass.

[handmade34]

11. understood...

the book and series do help people that have never been in the system understand a bit more... my experience was different and I absolutely understand why you may not be interested in watching...

truly sorry for your experience

[davidn3600]

9. Prison was never really meant to be for deterrence

That's part of the problem. The point of prison originally was to segregate the most violent and dangerous criminals from society until they can be rehabilitated. So basically security of society and rehabilitation of the convict. That's supposed to be the goal of prison. Today we are going about it all wrong. What we are basically doing today is warehousing people for a specified period of time with little to no rehabilitative motivation and then release them back upon society with little to no support network. Society then continues to punish them by shunning them. They struggle to find employment. They struggle to find a place to live. And then we expect them to not re-offend.

The whole idea seems counter-productive. You take a bunch of criminals and put them in a tiny area for an extended period of time and not do anything to modify behavior. All you do is watch them. I guess it's up to them to fix themselves. But what do you think is going to happen? They are going to get released as better and more hardened criminals, with a lot of friends who are criminals. This is all why our recidivism is over 60%.

Now remember what I said that the original objective of prison is security and rehabilitation? Notice what isn't its original purpose...deterrence. Prison is a very poor deterrent. And it's an even worse deterrent when you invoke minimum sentencing. People who have never been to prison cannot possibly in any way conceptualize the difference between varying prison lengths. That's the first problem. If someone is truly afraid of prison, 1 year is just as a deterrent as 5 years. So changing the minimum sentencing doesn't make any difference. All it does is prove society has an over-reliance on prisons. We need to reform these minimum-sentencing laws. We need to radically modify trap laws like the 3-strilke law which has been abused by prosecutors. We need to end the drug war. And we need to stop using prisons for victimless crimes.

If you are going to rely on prisons like we do, society needs to be willing to provide systems and programs that modify behavior and provide support networks for prisoners who want it. And that's a problem.... Because we have a society that doesn't even like giving food stamps to single mothers. They cry about it on Fox News every day. Society certainly isn't going to want to pay money to help convicts. But this touches on a much larger social issue that is a bit of a different topic. America is becoming a cut-throat society.

There is also incredible unfairness in sentencing.... poor people are screwed. Minorities get screwed. And women usually get more lenient sentences than men. And that all needs to change.

[handmade34]

12. oh yes... thanks

[NV Whino]

4. It is a Netflix "original" and is streaming

If anyone wants to see the show.

[handmade34]

6. thanks for adding that

I figured I was late to the game and everybody knew... I was especially interested when I found out it is based (loosely) on a true story...

[Solly Mack]

8. K&R

[Marrah_G]

10. I love this series

[11 Bravo]

13. I'm confused. If orange is now black, does this make John Boehner an African-American?