“We have a racially based justice system that overpunishes, fails to rehabilitate, and doesn't make us safer.” — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
Instead, our system of "corrections" is about arm's-length revenge and retribution, all day and all night. Then its overseers wonder why people… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
“You spend a lot of time thinking about how awful the prison is rather than envisioning your future.” — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
“How can a prisoner understand their punishment to have been worthwhile to anyone, when it's dealt in a way so offhand and… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
“...our current criminal justice system has no provision for restorative justice, in which an offender confronts the damage they have done and… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
“Mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses are the prime reason that the U.S. prison population has ballooned since the 1980s to over… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
“Prison is quite literally a ghetto in the most classic sense of the world, a place where the U.S. government now puts… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
Very close by the CMS shops, hidden about a quarter mile away in the woods, was the prison's rifle range. Correctional officers… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
“Mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses are the primary reason that the U.S. prison population has ballooned since the 1980s to over… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
“The public expects sentences to be punitive but also rehabilitative; however, what we expect and what we get from our prisons are… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
“The hours I would spend in the prison visiting room were among the most comforting of my life. They sped by, the… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
“Great institutions have leaders who are proud of what they do, and who engage with everyone who makes up those institutions, so… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
“A lengthy term of community service working with addicts on the outside would probably have driven the same truth home and been… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
“She didn’t want to admit to herself, let alone to the outside world, that she had been placed in a ghetto, just… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
Prison is quite literally a ghetto in the most classic sense of the word, a place where the U.S. government now puts… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
“Nothing about the daily workings of the prison system focuses its inhabitants’ attention on what life back on the outside, as a… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
“Prison is quite literally a ghetto in the most classic sense of the word, a place where the U.S. government now puts… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
I went back to work right away [after prison]. I was very lucky — a friend of mine created a job for… — Piper Kerman Copy Share Image
“I looked down at the doors of the forbidden Dorms and studiously examined the bulletin boards covered with incomprehensible information about events and rules… — Piper Kerman Copy Share
“Stoicism sure comes in handy when they take away your underpants. But how to reconcile it with one's insatiable need for other people?” — Piper Kerman Copy Share
“Some of the mothers looked overwhelmed - they were no longer accustomed to supervising their own kids in a normal, day-to-day way.” — Piper Kerman Copy Share
“The female guard in R&D explained that they had no women's street clothes, so she gave me the smallest pair of men's jeans they… — Piper Kerman Copy Share
“I had forgotten about the pleasures of college radio, the exquisite randomness of what got played, the twenty-minute between-songs banter of nineteen-year-olds, the smack… — Piper Kerman Copy Share
“I had long recognized that faith helped people understand their relationship to their community. In the best cases it helped women in Danbury focus… — Piper Kerman Copy Share
“We have a racially based justice system that overpunishes, fails to rehabilitate, and doesn't make us safer.” — Piper Kerman Copy Share
“If he is a half-decent human being, he will find himself the object of crushes. If he is a cocky bastard, even more so.” — Piper Kerman Copy Share
“If you had the misfortune of having the government intimately involved with your life, whether via public housing or Medicaid or food stamps, then… — Piper Kerman Copy Share
“Prison is quite literally a ghetto in the most classic sense of the world, a place where the U.S. government now puts not only… — Piper Kerman Copy Share
“He told us that it was important to eat right, exercise, and treat your body as a temple. But he didn't tell us how… — Piper Kerman Copy Share
“According to the CDC, cigarettes kill over 435,000 people a year in the United States. Most of us in Danbury were locked away for… — Piper Kerman Copy Share
“The public expects sentences to be punitive but also rehabilitative; however, what we expect and what we get from our prisons are very different… — Piper Kerman Copy Share
“Nothing about the daily workings of the prison system focuses its inhabitants’ attention on what life back on the outside, as a free citizen,… — Piper Kerman Copy Share
“According to Bertrand Russell, the virtuous stoic was one whose will was in agreement with the natural order. He described the basic idea like… — Piper Kerman Copy Share
![“I went back to work right away [after prison]. I was very lucky — a friend of mine created a job for me at his company. Most prisoners who come home face really significant challenges when it comes to finding work. It’s very, very hard for most people who have a criminal record to get a job. I…” quote by Piper Kerman](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/2ba/piper-kerman-8613_back-to-work_i-went-back-to-work-right-away-after-pri_2503972.jpg)
