Summary: Ten years before Piper helped haul a suitcase of cash for drugs. Now, she must face the consequences for her younger self's actions. She's sentenced to fifteen months in a minimum security prison and must learn to navigate this different world.
That was short because I'm assuming the majority of you at least know the premise of the show if you haven't already seen it.
Disclaimer: I'm a very white privileged woman. I will never understand the hardships that underprivileged people have to go through. This book is about prison experiences and since Piper was privileged as well, I know she did not go through the worst of prison. I do believe we need to listen to the stories of minorities so much more than we do now, but I also know some white privileged people who'll refuse to listen to someone they don't relate to. Piper's story is important because it's a good intro for those people. They'll listen to this blonde woman who makes sure to let you know that she had it so much easier than some of the women in there. She had a great support system and a good job waiting for her upon release. While we can't look at only Piper's experience, I think she did a good job at showing how certain differences were more advantageous for her.
I thought this book was great, It's very different from the show and so I like the two for separate reasons. The book was about one woman's prison story while the show is about all of the characters'.
It was interesting to me how the real Piper already changed the names of the people she met in prison and then the show changed them again. A couple were the same, like Pennsatucky, but everybody else was pretty much unrecognizable. The show also took a lot of liberties because Pennsatucky was so much nicer in the book. Larry was an amazing fiancé and their relationship never had the struggles that happened in the show. Instead, he was extremely supportive of Piper at all times. Alex, or Nora in the book, never ended up in the same prison as Piper. They overlapped in a different prison when they had to go on trial again, but in the actual prison she doesn't show up.
Thus, Netflix clearly dramatized the story and they've honestly become two completely different ones at this point. So don't go in expecting the same as the show.
I questioned certain parts of the book where conversations happened because I couldn't believe she remembered every important conversation she had word for word. I couldn't help myself from wondering how much was made up or remembered incorrectly. Since this is a memoir, the narrator is a little unreliable. It's purely through how Piper perceived everything.
Regardless, I thought she did a great job always bringing it back to how much better Piper had it than the majority of the other women prisoners. It wasn't a story about how badly she suffered. While yes she admits she struggled mentally, I didn't see her pain as greater than anybody else's.
I thought this was a great story because we all want to like Piper and support her. Even the guards and prison personnel would often ask her why a person like her was in prison. Piper is privileged and while she probably had a much better prison experience than the majority, we often need somebody relatable to show us the truth. Otherwise, we often ignore it. As bad as that sounds, it happens. I don't often think about what people in prison are going through, but Piper reminded me that I should be. Her fifteen months (ended up being shorter than that, I just can't remember the exact number) are nothing compared to the ones who have years. She describes the re-entry classes that she had to go through and Piper's time wasn't enough to drastically change the world. But imagine someone who was in prison for ten years and suddenly had to learn all the new technology. It's not easy and the system does not do much to prepare them.
I've taken a couple criminology classes and I know that does not make me an expert in anything, but one of the biggest things I've learned is that prison doesn't rehabilitate. It might punish, which is often a main desire, but when these people are released we want them to be better people, right? We want them to no longer quit crime and our system does this very poorly. Part of reducing recidivism is preparing them properly for the world so that they're more likely to be successful in a legal way. The re-entry program that we see in Orange is the New Black is not good preparation.
I could probably ramble on about my opinions on the prison system for forever, but I'll stop now.
I found Piper's story very inspiring and I would love to read more memoirs about people's experiences. I was glad to read in the author's note that she was active in organizations that are in support of prisoners. If any of you have suggestions for other good memoirs, let me know!
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