Orange Is The New Black is a comedy-drama netflix series that takes place in a women's federal prison. Based on a memoir by Piper Kerman who was sentenced to federal prison for involvement in a drug organization and transporting drug money. Throughout the series topics and issues such as of race, ethnicity, neofamily structures. Social class, and gender inequality. The show allows viewers to feel compassion and see the human side of inmates. These women all have a story, all have a name, they're more than just a number and certainly more than just “felons”.
The federal prison was divided into cell blocks almost like little communities and most did not socialize with others outside these communities. “The Suburbs” which generally housed the
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She is a criminal and a transgender woman. She violates social norms being transgender, 6 foot tall woman. She enjoys doing her makeup and fixing inmates hair. She is one of the girls but isn't accepted as one quite yet. She has suffered a lot of transphobic abuse from her coworkers and even her own son. Before transitioning Sophia was Marcus a firefighter who stole credit cards from fire victims to pay for her surgeries. She is the only transgender woman in the prison resulting in some discrimination and even outside the prison her son was embarrassed to be seen with her in public. When she was a firefighter she was seen often changing in the bathroom to avoid making her coworkers uncomfortable and to prevent any …show more content…
Her father obsessed with Dominican pride and he often pushed that pride onto her. Ruiz ends up hooking up with a mexican boy which results her betraying her dad and him kicking her out. She questions why this inter-ethnic boundaries are so important to him. Season four episode two “Power suit” provides an insight on Marias Dominican background and her rejecting the dominican nationalism. Throughout the episode between her flashbacks and present the shift in the differences and how now in prison she no longer rejects her ethnicity. During season five Maria is so worked up on Dominican pride that she has completely taken over “Spanish Harlem”. She has learned to accept her ethnicity and love it. Race and ethnicity is shown throughout the show the prison population is segregated by race at Litchfield and the impact race has for inmates. In the first episodes of season one piper is made perfectly aware she is white. When looking for a place to sit she sits with the white people as they are more welcoming to her. Dayanara who also got their when piper did was housed in the same cell and then once she was viewed and identified as latina was moved to “Spanish Harlem”. She is later scolded for not being able to speak spanish and is often harshly criticized by the other latinas. Dayas race impacts the space and locations that she has access to. Her race allows her to be placed in “Spanish Harlem” and to sit
All in all, Kerman’s year sentence in jail opened her eyes to some of the many problems within the federal prison system. She witnessed favoritism, abuse, health violations, etc. that helped her realize that she never wanted to go back to prison, despite all the true friendships she made. Through her use of rhetoric, mainly ethos, Kerman showed her audience a firsthand account of what an actual prison sentence is like. She also explored the idea of how one bad decision can change a person’s life forever.
In the prologue of Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissinger, football team, Panther, has players who have fears/problems to overcome before a important game with their biggest rival the Midland Lee. The main characters include Boobie Miles who had dealt with a tragic accident on his knee the last game he played causing him to get surgery leading him to not play as well as he did before, Jerrod McDougal who knows he can’t make a collage team because of his height, Mike Winchell who lives in poverty with his mother, Ivory Christian who has a love/hate relationship with football, and Brian Chavez who is a gifted football player and student being on top in every class.
The next big show that everyone seems to be talking about nowadays is “Orange is the new black.” A show that is centered on what citizens think a day in the life in a women’s prison is. But in all reality a women’s prison isn’t something to joke around about. Prison is defined as a correctional facility designed for confinement that is primarily ran by the state. Women serve their sentences in women’s prisons where men serve theirs in men’s prisons. According to Ashley Dugger an online introduction to criminal justice professor there is about 4,500 prisons in the United States alone. Of those 4,500 only 170 of them are solely women’s prisons.
To begin, Alexander points out how felons are depicted as life-long prisoners in her article ”The New Jim Crow”. However, Alexander states that The War on Drugs caused many blacks to be put in prison and scrutinized by the government thereafter. Similarly, according to Arnold, welfare/workfare recipients are under constant supervision and are required to work menial jobs. In addition, Arnold mentio...
In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the reader has the experience to understand what it was like to live in an insane asylum during the 1960’s. Kesey shows the reader the world within the asylum of Portland Oregon and all the relationships and social standings that happen within it. The three major characters’ groups, Nurse Ratched, the Black Boys, and McMurphy show how their level of power effects how they are treated in the asylum. Nurse Ratched is the head of the ward and controls everything that goes on in it, as she has the highest authority in the ward and sabotages the patients with her daily rules and rituals. These rituals include her servants, the Black Boys, doing anything she tells them to do with the patients.
Life at the Eastern State Penitentiary was unspeakable because of the cell life, disease, and treatment that the inmates had to endure. Aside from the burden of being in prison, the inmates at the Eastern State Penitentiary had yet another downfall, the never-ending terrible conditions of cell life they had to endure. At first, each cell housed only one prisoner and was complete with central heating, running water, a flush toilet, and a skylight (Eastern State). The public marveled at this fact because Andrew Jackson, the President of the United States at the time, was not even as lucky as to have luxuries like the inmates did (Eastern State).... ...
The authors begin the book by providing advice on how a convict can prepare for release from prison. Throughout the book, the authors utilize two fictional characters, Joe and Jill Convict, as examples of prisoners reentering society. These fictional characters are representative of America’s prisoners. Prison is an artificial world with a very different social system than the real world beyond bars. Convicts follow the same daily schedule and are shaped by the different society that is prison. Prisoners therefore forget many of the obl...
The 1970s in the United States was a time of incredible change, doubt, as well as reform. The many issues happening throughout the country helped to lead to the discomfort in many prisoners that eventually lead to their e...
Spending time in an overcrowded cell really lowers your social stability throughout time. Many of the prisoners tend to turn anti-social because they do not want to put up with the conditions in which they live. According to Terence T. Gorski the prisoners tend to develop an illness known as Post Incarceration Syndrome which is something developed through extreme confinement and lack of opportunity. The inmates are more often than not given very little opportunities to rehabilitate themselves with everyday things such as working and receiving an education in the overcrowded prisons. These prisoners are not given enough opportunity to assemble with one another because time is very strict and limited inside the prison walls. Resources are often stretched out to accommodate to everyone’s needs.The inmates tend to get treated in a very inhuman way, resulting in negative consequences. Dealing with the overcrowdedness of the prisons leads to the build-up of stress. Like every human being the prisoners will eventually get very tired of dealing with these conditions and will reach their melting point. When something like this occurs the inmate will most likely receive negative consequences such as complete solidarity. On the contrary being in an isolated cell for about 23 hours a day allows for the prisoners to ponder upon the choices
Through two metal, cold doors, I was exposed to a whole new world. Inside the Gouverneur Correctional Facility in New York contained the lives of over 900 men who had committed felonies. Just looking down the pathway, the grass was green, and the flowers were beautifully surrounding the sidewalks. There were different brick buildings with their own walkways. You could not tell from the outside that inside each of these different buildings 60 men lived. On each side, sharing four phones, seven showers, and seven toilets. It did not end there, through one more locked metal door contained the lives of 200 more men. This life was not as beautiful and not nearly as big. Although Gouverneur Correctional Facility was a medium security prison, inside this second metal door was a high wired fence, it was a max maximum security prison. For such a clean, beautifully kept place, it contained people who did awful, heart-breaking things.
Prisons have dated back to the twentieth century when the United States had almost two million people confined in prisons or jails. Prisons have been a form of government punishment that has shaped our nation to what it is today. The first jail was established in Philadelphia, in 1970. It was called the Walnut Street Jail and was recorded as the first use of imprisonment through solitary confinement. The basic principles of the new system were to reform those in prison, and to segregate those according to age, sex, and type of offenses charged against them (Schoenherr). The second prison was called Sing-Sing a...
“The history of correctional thought and practice has been marked by enthusiasm for new approaches, disillusionment with these approaches, and then substitution of yet other tactics”(Clear 59). During the mid 1900s, many changes came about for the system of corrections in America. Once a new idea goes sour, a new one replaces it. Prisons shifted their focus from the punishment of offenders to the rehabilitation of offenders, then to the reentry into society, and back to incarceration. As times and the needs of the criminal justice system changed, new prison models were organized in hopes of lowering the crime rates in America. The three major models of prisons that were developed were the medical, model, the community model, and the crime control model.
Taylor, D. L., & Palacious, W. R. (2002). The Inmate Subculture in Juvenile Settings. In R. L. Gido, & T. Allemen (Eds.), Turnstyle Justice: Issues in American Corrections (pp. 60-61; Tables 5.2, 5.3). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Jeff Jhonson.
Firstly, in order to gain a better understanding of the problems that plague our correctional system we must fully understand the enormous overcrowding problem that exists in the majority of state and federal prisons. Since 1980 the prison population has quadrupled and only the numbers continue to rise (Schmalleger, 2012).To help reduce the overcrowding problem within our prisons, taxpayers have funded 102 new correctional facilities since 1980 (Shelden, 1999).... ... middle of paper ... ... Offenders that are incarcerated within the prison quickly find a group of people commonly associated with their ethnic groups to establish a rapport with.
the outside society, with little or no contact at all until the inmates stay is