{"id":11315,"date":"2014-10-03T11:41:10","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T15:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news\/?page_id=11315"},"modified":"2014-10-23T11:49:16","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T15:49:16","slug":"pipers-list-orange-is-the-new-black-author-offers-ways-to-support-prison-reform","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/pipers-list-orange-is-the-new-black-author-offers-ways-to-support-prison-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Piper’s List: ‘Orange Is the New Black’ Author Offers Ways to Support Prison Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m the product of two women\u2019s institutions,\u201d Piper Kerman \u201992 told an audience in John M. Greene Hall on Thursday: Smith and federal prison.<\/p>\n

For the next two hours, Kerman, author of the memoir Orange Is the New Black<\/em>, explored the differences and similarities between those two \u201ccommunities of women\u201d at a talk for the Smith community. Fellow alumna Bethanne Patrick \u201985 was the moderator.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can easily imagine what my life would have been like if I hadn\u2019t gone to prison,\u201d said Kerman, now 45, whose book has been adapted to become a hit Netflix series. \u201cBut I can\u2019t imagine my life without my Smith education.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she began serving a 15-month sentence in 1998 for carrying a suitcase full of drug money, Kerman said she adjusted quickly\u00a0to the \u201cintensity of the community of women\u201d inmates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt the fact that I went to Smith prepared me,\u201d Kerman said.<\/p>\n

But in contrast to Smith, the federal prison in Danbury, Conn., where Kerman served her time, provided no education or enlightenment for the women inside, she said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. prison system is a model of \u201cpure punishment\u201d Kerman said, noting that most women are incarcerated for non-violent offenses. Although women make up only about 7 percent of the country\u2019s prison population, Kerman said the rate of incarceration for women has grown by 800 percent in the last 30 years due to stricter sentencing laws in many states for minor offenses.<\/p>\n

Since the success of the Netflix series based on her book, Kerman has become an advocate for reforming the U.S. prison system.<\/p>\n

In response to questions from students, here\u00a0are four things she recommended people can do to support women in prison:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Donate books to a prison. \u201cPrisoners are voracious readers,\u201d Kerman said, \u201cand there is really no education in prison.\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. Volunteer time to prisoner support programs. \u201cThere is a prison or jail in almost every community in the country,\u201d Kerman noted.<\/li>\n
  3. Mentor someone who is coming out of prison, family members on the outside or a young person who might be at risk for becoming involved in crime.<\/li>\n
  4. Lobby elected officials to change sentencing laws and reduce the number of people being incarcerated. \u201cTell them you want more sensible public safety policies,\u201d Kerman said.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cI\u2019m the product of two women\u2019s institutions,\u201d Piper Kerman \u201992 told an audience in John M. Greene Hall on Thursday: Smith and federal prison. For the next two hours, Kerman, author of the memoir Orange Is the New Black, explored the differences and similarities between those two \u201ccommunities of women\u201d at a talk for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11315","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11315"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11353,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11315\/revisions\/11353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}