With all the hoopla surrounding the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black” (OITNB), Reentry Central’s Managing Editor, Beatrice Codianni, thought that Ms. Magazine might be interested in doing an article on some of the real women who were in the Danbury, CT prison that is given a fake name in the OITNB series.
Codianni was incarcerated in Danbury and knew of women, who upon being released, set about to become strong advocates for criminal justice reform, particularly for females. She had in mind Andrea James, author and founder of Families for Justice as Healing, LaShonia Etheridge-Bey, a staff member of the Washington D.C Mayor’s Office of Returning Citizen Affairs, Starlene Romain a Cognitive Skills Facilitator for the Osborne Association, and a host of other women who are leading productive lives helping other women.
Codianni thought that Ms., a magazine dedicated to empowering women, might like to acknowledge that formerly incarcerated women are now a leading factor in giving incarcerated women a voice, and fighting for them with legislative actions geared toward reducing the amount of women in prison.
Ms. Magazine did reply to Codianni’s email, and asked if she would consider writing a blog about how the OITNB series inaccurately portrays women, and the issues and obstacles real-life incarcerated women face.
Although Codianni had hoped for an article on the real women of Danbury prison, she was happy to write the blog so that others could see that the mass incarceration of women is no joke, and there is more suffering and sorrow than shenanigans going on in the Danbury prison and womens' prisons across America.
Read "What You Won’t See on Orange is the New Black" here.
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