Current Events Series #3: Piper Kerman’s Visit to York College of PA
Earlier in the month of September, York College was given the privilege of having Piper Kerman, inspiration for the famous Netflix show, Orange is the New Black, visit campus. The event was part of the 2017 Vizzi Family Lectureship in Leadership Excellence series hosted in the Waldner Performing Arts Center. The seats were packed full, as the audience craned to hear her story, her words of inspiration, and most important, a new perspective.
The lights dimmed and out stepped Piper Kerman to the roar of applause. She smiled, her eyes sparkling, her stance poised, her wave elegant, and her story captivating. It started for her right after college in 1993. Born into a family of doctors, lawyers, and attorneys, she didn’t follow down a similar path. Unsure where she wanted to take her life, recent college grad Piper got caught up in something way over her head. She befriended a woman who asked her to do a simple favor. Take a suitcase of money to a whole other county…a suitcase of drug money.
Caught up in this whirlwind of events, Piper delivered the money and broke ties with those people and that lifestyle. So she thought. She did not think it would show up at her door years later in 1998, in the form of charges from the Federal Government, accusing her of criminal conspiracy and money-laundering.
After pleading guilty to the charges, Piper was given a 15 month sentence in Women’s Federal Prison Camp in Danbury, Connecticut. She reported to the prison, on a Wednesday, February 3, 2004. The cold air did nothing to make the cold steel gates covered in barbed wire, any more welcoming. She stepped through three gates…alone, with her boyfriend Larry watching helplessly from the outside world. And that day Piper became an inmate identified by a bunch of numbers, rather than a name, changing her world forever.
Piper paused her speech and looked around the crowd, who was completely zoned in on every word she was saying. She smiled at the fond memory of her welcome by the other women fellow inmates, who gave her small items to help her survive her first few weeks in prison. They would soon become people, rather than an inmate number, inspirations, opposing all of the prison stories she had heard, and they would soon become lifelong friends, women she admired and continues to lobby for each and every day.
Piper has dedicated her life to fighting for more recognition and justice to the prison system of America. She has been an advocate against solitary confinement, which she argues the mental impact is devastating on the human mind and psyche. She also has fought for better parole and shifting resources to the time outside of prison, in order to help a person become a better citizen.
This advocacy from Piper resounds against the about 700,000 people who are released from prison per year. They are left to fend for themselves, trying to adjust to reality and manage with the minimum resources they have, to try and recuperate and become a member of society again, many in poor geographical areas, making the journey more difficult. Without the needed resources, or the availability of a job, released inmates are often times more likely to end back up in jail or prison. Piper’s stance speaks very true to these statistics, which is why she fights so strongly and so boldly.
Piper, even though she is portrayed in a TV show, kept a very poised and humble demeanor. She encouraged the crowd to take a look at their own life and to realize, “your actions in the world matter.” She stressed the importance of decision making and when asked what advice she could share, she simply stated to keep your mouth shut and your eyes open. One must have good observation in life.
Leaving the crowd with her emotional and eye opening story, along with an echoing, resounding applause, she left these final words swirling throughout the minds of many in the auditorium. “Don’t be afraid to fail. You will learn more from your failures than your successes. You are much more powerful than you realize. What you do in the world matters a lot. Don’t be afraid to fail.”
Works Cited
Kerman, Piper. “Iper Kerman Is Going to Federal Prison FAQ.” . Home of the Pipebomb ., Thepipebomb.com, 2004, thepipebomb.com/archive /000244.php.
Strawn, Catherine. “Frisky Q&A: Piper Kerman Talks About Doing Time Behind Bars.” The Frisky, The Frisky, 6 Apr. 2010, www.thefrisky.com/2010-04-06/frisky-qa-piper kerman-talks-about-doing-time-behind-bars/.
Tahmincioglu, Eve. “Unable to Get Jobs, Freed Inmates Return to Jail.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 17 Feb. 2010, www.nbcnews.com/id/35263313/ns/business careers/t/unable-get-jobs-freed-inmates-return-jail/#.WeSw5DspDIU.