Orange is the New Black is a show that is not new to controversial issues and often displays them in the episodes to open up discussions about how Americans view and treat prisoners. Before watching and discussing Orange is the New Black with my peers, I originally saw the problems in the correctional system as issues that likely can never be improved and did not view the more emotional side of the problems, but now after talking with peers, I see how certain issues in prisons may need a more emotional outlook to comprehend and to think of solutions. The issues that Orange is the New Black showcases that I believe deserve more understanding and to be looked at in a different light are prison healthcare and race issues.
Prison healthcare in …show more content…
What I mean by that is I felt prisons should obviously cater to anything life threatening or basic injuries and mental health medications, but I never really considered that it is the correctional facility’s job to provide hormonal therapy because I felt there were bigger issues that prisons needed to tackle. However, after having class discussions on transgender rights and seeing how denying hormonal therapy can affect a person, I am now sharing the viewpoint that hormonal therapy should never be denied to someone who needs it. Something that Caroline Lubinsky said resonated with me, and what she said was “People tend to put their head in the sand and ignore things that they don’t get” (Lubinsky). What she said was what I was doing in regards to transgender rights in prisons and is what many people across America are doing as well. Another thought about prison healthcare in regards to Orange is the New Black comes from Bailey deCathelineau when she said, “Orange is the New Black is putting a personal face to the issues and getting people to talk about their opinions and see how it is affecting people in our society” (deCathelineau). This thought from her sums up how the show and discussions have changed my opinion in regards to healthcare among prisons. Instead of how I originally sat on the more reserved side of what prisons should …show more content…
I never took the time to think about why prisoners only eat lunch or talk to their own race or ethnicity, I just took it as that is the way it is, I saw it as odd, but I never thought about how truly damaging it can be. In a comment on my post, “How Race Impacts Prison Life,” Lubinsky says that she understands why someone would segregate themselves out of fear, especially new inmates, but it is a sad way to live (Lubinsky). Lubinsky began to open my eyes on how personally damaging self-chosen racial segregation can be in prisons. However, it was in conversation with deCathelineau and my professor, Tiffany Wilgar, that the topic of specifically why self-chosen segregation within prisons can be damaging. In this conversation we discussed how if racial and ethnic groups only talk to members in their own group, then there will be no understanding among the inmates; this lack of understanding and interaction only leads to problems, problems we see in prisons every day in regards to fights and violence (deCathelineau, Wilgar). The conversation made me realize that if true intermingling never begins among the different groups of inmates, then they are basically living in a chosen pre-civil rights era and it is likely that violence in prisons will never de-escalate until there is an understanding of racial
Prison healthcare in …show more content…
What I mean by that is I felt prisons should obviously cater to anything life threatening or basic injuries and mental health medications, but I never really considered that it is the correctional facility’s job to provide hormonal therapy because I felt there were bigger issues that prisons needed to tackle. However, after having class discussions on transgender rights and seeing how denying hormonal therapy can affect a person, I am now sharing the viewpoint that hormonal therapy should never be denied to someone who needs it. Something that Caroline Lubinsky said resonated with me, and what she said was “People tend to put their head in the sand and ignore things that they don’t get” (Lubinsky). What she said was what I was doing in regards to transgender rights in prisons and is what many people across America are doing as well. Another thought about prison healthcare in regards to Orange is the New Black comes from Bailey deCathelineau when she said, “Orange is the New Black is putting a personal face to the issues and getting people to talk about their opinions and see how it is affecting people in our society” (deCathelineau). This thought from her sums up how the show and discussions have changed my opinion in regards to healthcare among prisons. Instead of how I originally sat on the more reserved side of what prisons should …show more content…
I never took the time to think about why prisoners only eat lunch or talk to their own race or ethnicity, I just took it as that is the way it is, I saw it as odd, but I never thought about how truly damaging it can be. In a comment on my post, “How Race Impacts Prison Life,” Lubinsky says that she understands why someone would segregate themselves out of fear, especially new inmates, but it is a sad way to live (Lubinsky). Lubinsky began to open my eyes on how personally damaging self-chosen racial segregation can be in prisons. However, it was in conversation with deCathelineau and my professor, Tiffany Wilgar, that the topic of specifically why self-chosen segregation within prisons can be damaging. In this conversation we discussed how if racial and ethnic groups only talk to members in their own group, then there will be no understanding among the inmates; this lack of understanding and interaction only leads to problems, problems we see in prisons every day in regards to fights and violence (deCathelineau, Wilgar). The conversation made me realize that if true intermingling never begins among the different groups of inmates, then they are basically living in a chosen pre-civil rights era and it is likely that violence in prisons will never de-escalate until there is an understanding of racial