Orange is the New Black: Drug Addiction
After watching episode 8 of Orange is the New Black, I was surprised by how many women were incarcerated for drug use. Piper, Alex, Daya, Nicky, and Trisha are some of the characters that have been introduced on the show and have had past dealings with drug use or distribution. The amount of women shown on the show to be incarcerated for drug offenses shows a very large problem with law enforcement and harsh prison sentences. Drug use among men, and especially in African American communities, is more often discussed in media and law enforcement cases then with female drug offenders. The writers of Orange is the New Black do a good job at trying to make the show seem relatable to middle and upper class women who may have no experience with prison systems. The show does this by showing the audience only drug withdrawals and drug addicts who are white. Up to this episode the viewers have only seen two characters go through withdrawal and they were both white (Trisha and Nicky). Red also blames Mendez for giving the drugs to Trisha instead of blaming Trisha for taking the drugs. Nicky, who is a drug addict, discusses drug use being a chemical problem and not the users own personal fault. Despite Nicky’s beliefs though she allows for Red to isolate Trisha and refuses to help her through her withdrawals. I think that the presentation of drugs in and out of prison would be very different if told from the viewpoint of someone of color. Depending on the areas that people grow up in and the availability of drugs, it may come as a shock to some people to see the degree and vast numbers of how many white women are drug abusers. I don’t believe that prison is a space for rehabilitation because, as it is illustrated in the show, there are often many ways in which people sneak drugs into prison. It is also hard to get clean and stay that way in a constantly harmful and stressful environment such as prison. For some it may become easier to get clean in prison, but once temptation shows up outside of prison upon release they may relapse. There are not enough programs for rehabilitation in prisons and the harsh sentencing only goes on to make people’s lives more unnecessarily harder when they are not learning or becoming better people for their time spent behind bars.
