Incarcerated Women's Views on Orange is the New Black

• In Event: The Experience of Motherhood for Women Who Break the Law: Alternative Perspectives

Abstract

Women’s incarceration has remained relatively invisible, even with the onset of mass incarceration. The Netflix series Orange Is the New Black premiered in 2013 and yielded a new narrative of incarcerated women. Although based on Piper Chapman’s autobiography of the same name, the television series has taken liberties with stories. There has been some research on Orange Is the New Black, but to date, it none of it is how currently or formerly incarcerated women view this show. The current study is a combination of focus groups and one-on-one interviews with currently and formerly incarcerated women. The two major themes are around motherhood from prison and whether the series should be seen as “Hollywood” and entertaining or is an offending caricature of women’s actual incarceration.

Authors

• Kaitlyn Leigh, University of Cincinnati

• Joanne Belknap, University of Colorado Boulder