SWAMPSCOTT – Piper Kerman had a privileged upbringing in this affluent North Shore town. But it didn’t stop her from ending up as an inmate in 2004 in the federal prison system after pleading guilty to charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit drug trafficking.
What that experience did do for her was inspire her to write a best-selling memoir about her 13-month stint in prison, “Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison,” which later became an award-winning television series on Netflix.
Recognizing the humanity of inmates
“Part of my goal in writing the book … and allowing it to be adapted, was for more people to recognize the humanity of people in prison, or in the criminal justice system,” Kerman told The Dickinsonian, the Dickinson College student newspaper, in a 2018 interview. “We want to have a criminal justice system, wherein if someone we love ends up in that position, we wouldn’t fear for their lives, we wouldn’t fear for their safety, we wouldn’t fear for their sanity,” she explained. “We wouldn’t ever want someone we love to go into prison or jail and come out in worse shape than when they went in, but that’s exactly what happens far too often.”…