Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison focuses on three important themes that Kerman hoped her readers would understand and become interested in: race and class, gender and power, and friendship and empathy. She hoped that her memoir would make readers come away with a different idea about the people who are in prison and why they are there.

Kerman was released in 2005 and later went on to write her memoir. She said, “The consequences of our actions always come back to us in one way or another.” She also described this time as the start of her “journey through the American criminal justice system.”Īfter turning herself in on a cold February day at Danbury Correctional Facility, Kerman received the last thing she expected: “kindness at the hands of the other prisoners.” Kerman spoke highly of her fellow inmates, as they welcomed her and continued to make her feel as safe as she could. Customs Officers summoning her to court for a crime that she had committed years past.

Kerman managed to stay uninvolved until, one day, her lover asked her to carry $10,000 from Chicago to Brussels.Īlthough she slowly put her past behind her and started a new life in New York City, Kerman was shocked to later find two U.S. Kerman began her lecture by recalling her college graduation from Smith College, a small liberal arts college for women, in 1992, recognizing her alma mater’s similarities with Bridgewater College.įollowing her graduation, Kerman followed an “older, worldly woman” around the world, while this older woman was involved with drug trafficking. Her memoir was later adapted into the hit Netflix original series, Orange is the New Black, by Jenji Kohan. Kerman wrote a compelling memoir, Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, recounting her experiences related to being incarcerated for a crime she had committed ten years prior. 12, Piper Kerman spoke to a full house of students, faculty, staff and community members in Cole Hall.

Piper orange the new black