Exposing Corruption and Injustice in the U.S. Prison System: Orange Is the New Black

Abstract

Orange Is the New Black Orange Is the New Black is an excellent series whose theme revolves around the inhabitability of American prisons attributed to corruption and ignorance of the set laws. It is an episode created by Jenji Kohan for Netflix in 2010 from Piper Kerman's Memoir and has seven seasons. Based on this TV program, prison remains the pits that many undeserving humans experience agony and miserable life. Justice remains a myth for many inmates as race, gender, and wealth status dictates the nature of treatments in any justice-related situation within the United States of America. Orange Is the New Black portrays a clear picture of the nature of life that inmates experience while held at the American prisons. However, though 80% of the program displays guard brutality and corruption surrounding the American justice system, the episode also reveals the humane spirit of some law enforcers whose urge to fight for inmates' justice remains well defined. The program proves both exciting and tormenting as the injustices experienced by the inmates and the consequences that befell their riot for justice leave the viewer with an urge to watch the following season in search of satisfaction to the undying desire. Orange as the New Black is a title that reflects the extent to which race remains a dominating power in defining who the American prisons view as the most preferring habitant of these unforgiving prisons. The blacks are held tight by the Law, and their common artier remains as the orange inmate uniform that the American prisons welcome their new inmate with at any given time. Orange is the new black characterizes the rising number of the black people within the American prison attributed to their skin tone rather than their degree of crime. Arguing from such a point of view, it is therefore clear that this program demonstrates the functional perspective through a precise analysis of the American criminal justice system that leaves many experiencing failure and success at the same time. Success in the sense that though Chapman faces a jail term from a past crime, the experience opens up a new chapter for her relationship with her criminal fiancées and also paves the way for her new connections with unexpected people that she mingles with behind bars. Failure in the sense that many inmates experience hardships in the hands of prison warders and their efforts to find justice fall on deaf ears, leading them to more challenging living conditions by participating in transfers to maximum prisons that prove more inhabitable than the minimum prisons. The functional perspective remains vested on the American justice system structure, which, based on the episode, remains compromised to ensure color dominates in defining how well or bad an American may be treated in the hands of the laws. Conflict theory argues that competition remains defined among groups within a society over limited resources, creating tension. The unlimited conflicts between the law enforcers and inmates in both the minimum and maximum prisons indicate a conflict perspective within this program. The prison warders wish to take advantage of the powers vested on them by the Law over the inmates, while the inmates wish to defend their judicial and human rights as defined by the same Law. Inmates believe inhabitable environment regardless of their situation, with prisons not an exception. Due to high levels of corruption and discrimination attributed to race and gender within the United States, the inmates and the prison warders fail to agree with...