Robert Shaffer
Connector Contributor

Being a middle-class, college-educated woman from Massachusetts, Piper Kerman imagined that her stay in a women’s prison would be a terrifying experience. While Kerman’s time in prison was harsh, to her surprise, she found a world she never knew existed.

“The last thing I expected on my first day of prison was to experience kindness at the hands of the other women,” Kerman said, “but that’s exactly what happened.”

The basis for the hit Netflix show, Kerman’s memoir “Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison” was the subject of a talk she gave to students, faculty and members of the public at University Crossing on Tuesday, Sept. 30. During the talk, Kerman described how her view of prison and prisoners evolved as she served her time.

Indicted in 1998 on drug trafficking charges, Kerman’s incarceration resulted from her helping a former lover transport drug money from the U.S. to Europe.

Six years after pleading guilty and signing a plea agreement, Kerman finally had to serve her sentence. She spent the first 11 months serving in a minimum security unit in The Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn. Her last month was served in a 26-story federal prison in Chicago.

“I was scared, really scared,” Kerman said, “because our idea of prison and prisoners is of uncontrollably violent places filled with uncontrollably violent people.”

What she found took her by surprise. Kerman said that, as initially distressing as her time in Danbury was, she never found the violent inmates she imagined she would.

“Those other women schooled me…and they shared their own survival with me, and they helped me survive and navigate my prison sentence,” Kerman said. “And I am eternally grateful to them.”

Kerman said this helpfulness went as far as inmates offering her such basic commodities as toothpaste, shampoo, shower shoes and even instant coffee. She said this outreach was a crucial element to prison life.

In fact, Kerman said this willingness to help was just one example of how prison life valued the importance of women standing together.

Kerman’s time in Danbury was abruptly contrasted when she was moved to the high security prison in Chicago, a place where she experienced extremely harsh conditions that included 24-hour lockdowns. “Prisons are scarcity by design,” she said, “they’re intended to be harsh, they’re intended to be traumatic.”

These elements of Kerman’s story were put into even more relief as she discussed the prevalence of sexual abuse and assault in the U.S. correctional system. She said this issue occurs because the correctional officers consist almost entirely of men.

“It’s hard to imagine a less equal relationship than the relationship between a correctional officer and a prisoner,” Kerman said, “and when you add gender on top of that, things get really weird really quickly.”

The issues and experiences Kerman discussed left attendees with strong impressions of the realities that women face throughout the correctional system.

Crystal Bretton, a business management major in her senior year, said she was both surprised and impressed by the value that women inmates placed on sticking together. However, the existence of widespread sexual assault and abuse was something she expected to hear.

Commenting about the talk as a whole, Bretton said that Kerman’s insight and knowledge was great to hear. “The talk far exceeded my expectations,” Bretton said.

While Bretton was not surprised about the prevalence of sexual assault, another attendee was. A senior year English major, Victoria Laureano did not expect to hear how common sexual crimes against women are in prison. She also was surprised by the small details of Kerman’s story, something Laureano described as, “the politics of prison.”

Noting how Kerman’s talk revealed different aspects of such an important issue, Joe Giuffrida said that the talk, “brought things into perspective.” Giuffrida attended the talk with his girlfriend, a student at the university.

Giuffrida said he was glad he attended and felt like Kerman’s story was insightful. “It’s not in front of a TV screen,” he said, “it’s real, in first person.”