I should preface this with the fact that I have watched the Netflix series. So this wasn't as much a brand new story as it was a very familiar story.
I knew the series would have changed things in a big way. Sensationalized it all, added more sex, more tension, and just generally glammed it up. I actually kind of assumed that the series took the character of Piper and maybe a few other stand out characters from the book, but mostly just took the setting of the book and projected their own story into it. I was wrong (sort of).
I was surprised at how many characters and events from the series were in the book. It was kind of exciting whenever I realized I knew a character and could put a face to it (all the names and some of the features have been changed of course and the face I was putting to the name was an actor and not the actual person, obviously).
There were, however, some notable differences. In real life Larry was loving and supportive and visited Piper every single week; when she was released they got married and I think they are still together now. Piper's old girlfriend who convinced her to carry the drug money (which was the offence that put her in prison ten years later) was not in prison with her, although she did see her in the Chicago prison where she was brought to testify against another defendant in the same drug smuggling ring. There was also very little mention of sex or drug use in the prison.
Also just pretty much assume that anything that seems ridiculous in the series (the entire compound escaping to the lake through a hole in the fence, an inmate killing, dismembering, and burying a guard in the garden, or an inmate stealing a prison van and driving off a cliff) didn't happen. Although I'm guessing that some of the more extreme things have maybe happened in some form somewhere? Maybe? Maybe not. Anyways, they certainly didn't happen to Piper. But there are a lot of similarities. There really was a lake just outside the compound. There really was a Russian lady who ran the kitchen. There really was a terrible guard with a porn star moustache.
My favourite thing about the book though was getting to hear Piper's perspective on the prison. She recognized how much more privileged she was than most of the other inmates and commented on how prison did a very poor job of actually facilitating any sort of reconciliation or preparing the inmates in any way to live a law-abiding life upon their release. The pre-release programs she had to participate in were a joke and the prison provided almost no education or support of any kind to the inmates. Piper often talked about how much she worried about the friends she had made and the situations they would be returned to upon their release.
I listened to When They Call You a Terrorist: a black lives matter memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele a few months ago and got my first real look at how broken the American prison system is and how ridiculous the war on drugs is. I shouldn't actually say ridiculous, because that makes it sound silly and funny when it is actually extremely racist and damaging. Minimum drug sentences mean that prisons (like the one Piper was in) are full of people serving hard time (5+ years) for first time non-violent drug offences. Required minimum sentences prevent judges from taking things on a case by case basis and prevent them from looking at the circumstances of the individual when determining a sentence in a drug case. Add in that a lot of the people being charged with drug offences got into the drug economy out of desperation or a need to provide for their families, which of course means that they cannot afford lawyers or bail. So they are stuck in jail for sometimes years before they are even charged with a crime and when they are sentenced, their court appointed lawyers can do little to bring down the length of their sentence. It is not a war against drugs, it is a war against poor people of colour. Rich white people can afford bail and pay for fancy lawyers. I can't remember the numbers exactly, but I think Piper's minimum sentence is somewhere around 5 years. Her lawyers were able to get that down to 15 months. Most of the people she was in prison with were not so lucky.
This book was a good combination of entertaining and educational. I would recommend it. It is nowhere near as intense and graphic as you might think if you have only seen or heard about bits of the show. It is one of those books that will simply tell you someone's story. Someone who has probably experienced very different things that you. And it is important to hear other people's stories, especially when they deal with things you have not experienced yourself. We should learn about the prison system. We should listen to people who have experienced it when they tell us that it is broken. We should be informed so that we can act as an ally and not out of ignorance.
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