“Orange is the New Black” and its Problematic Portrayal of Restorative Justice

I have been a devoted viewer of “Orange is the New Black” since the show’s inception witnessing one of television’s most accurate portrayals of the life of inmates inside the U.S. correctional system. When the first season aired, I was conducting dissertation research on trauma and resilience, including restorative justice (RJ) as an alternative to legal, retributive justice. Given the progressive trends across the country, the emergence of RJ programs in schools, and increased awareness of alternate forms of justice, I hoped for the series to turn to this new paradigm of taking responsibility and making amends. It would be incredible if the writer, Jenji Kohan—having successfully pointed out the flaws and injustices inherent in the U.S. justice and corrections—dedicated a season to addressing all these problems in for-profit prisons. What if they dared to portray a restorative justice model?

By the seventh season of “Orange is the New Black”, RJ had become a leitmotif in the narrative, but the show failed to portray RJ accurately. Kohan missed an important opportunity to showcase the value of RJ in communities by addressing the need(s) of the victim(s) of an offense and the root causes of an offense. The show did, however, conclude eloquently with the theme that all people deserve a chance at redemption. This theme is important in RJ but not the starting off point.

At its most effective, RJ ensures that the fabric of society begins healing and that the offender does not repeat the offense. The show demonstrates how offenders become tied to their identity as felons and can never fully reintegrate into society. That is the case for Taystee’s and Aleida’s failed attempts to begin a new life and their recidivism. Likewise, Piper struggles to live a normal life after prison, faced with a list of impossible parole regulations that keep her isolated from her family, friends with children, and her colleagues. 

In contrast to the show’s portrayal of it and as Howard Zehr emphasizes in his groundbreaking “Changing Lenses: Restorative Justice for Our Times”, RJ is first and foremost about victim-centered justice; it does not begin with the offender. In the best-case scenario, RJ is about getting to talk things out, making amends, and experiencing forgiveness. 

Returning to the seventh season of “Orange is the New Black”, former prison warden Joe Caputo has reinvented his identity as a contingent faculty member teaching correctional officers, like his mentee, Tamika Ward, who under his tutelage, rises to the ranks of prison warden. At the maximum-security prison, he teaches a course on RJ and begins something resembling a therapy group in which the inmates learn about restorative justice. Under the new direction proposed by Tamika, this program is intended to help inmates plan their life outside of prison. The class, however, helps them very little inside or outside of prison.

A few of the characters that take part in this RJ class are Cindy Hayes, María Ruiz, and Beth Hoefler. Cindy is serving time for thefts that she committed while working for the TSA. María Ruiz sold counterfeit designer jeans and had additional time added to her sentence for inciting a riot. Beth murdered her three children. Later in the season, Joe Caputo himself is identified as an offender. Although he claims he was “MeTooed”, in fact he sexually harassed and created a hostile work environment for the prison guard, Susan Fischer, whom he later fired. Instead of healing, forgiveness, and paths to move forward, viewers watch cycles of violence perpetuate. Having introduced the possibility of RJ, the show then represents it as failing in its goal of ending cycles of violence and creating a more secure community.

Cindy’s thievery in the TSA office never enters the conversation. Throughout the sixth and seventh season, her narrative shifts to her betrayal of Taystee in exchange for early-release, a decision for which she feels intense remorse. Then, the RJ class gives her space to make amends with her mother who is raising her biological daughter Monica. Cindy never talks to Taystee about lying and getting Taystee a life sentence, which perpetuates cycles of violence. Instead, Taystee, who feels vindictive, pulls her own investigation to tell Monica, Cindy’s biological daughter, who her real mother is. This causes the grandmother to kick Cindy out of the house for destabilizing the home and Monica’s life, which is at a precarious stage of teenage development. 

We might imagine how RJ would have looked in the case of María Ruiz, who was selling phony designer jeans. In the flashbacks to María’s offenses in the department store where she worked, the victims of this deceit were the women who purchased the jeans and perhaps also the designers whose work was being imitated. They may have asked María to personally reimburse them for their purchases or encouraged her to volunteer with an organization that protects intellectual property. They would have learned that María had a difficult life, she was pregnant and ready to leave behind the life of scamming to have her baby and marry her boyfriend. She would have made up for her mistake and been able to raise her daughter. 

During one of the RJ group sessions, Beth explains that her victims are dead and that she cannot even pretend to write a letter to them because they were so young that they couldn’t read. She also admits that she does not even remember killing her own children. More importantly, we must recall that Beth felt compelled by voices she heard to drown María in a toilet and attempted to do so. Should Beth be atoning to her spouse? Family? María? The show leaves it unclear who needs justice. Beth chooses to be present in the class, but does not complete the letter writing assignment. Lastly, Beth’s case seems more psychiatric and offenders that have no or limited capacity for empathy, may not be able to atone to their victims.

Kaputo tries to enact his own version of RJ by apologizing to the ex-prison guard, Susan Fischer, that he sexually harassed. Instead of making amends, he tries to vindicate himself and fails. He admits that he had a crush on her and that she was a terrible guard. He realizes his mistake—he went to his victim’s home without her knowledge and did not listen to her. He makes the situation worse by escalating the situation and touching himself—he claims he tore a stich from his recent surgery on his testicles. Susan points out the harm he caused and his preference for more masculine types by listing her fluency in Spanish as one strength she had above the other guards. His girlfriend, Natalie Figueroa, says to ignore it, but that is not a good strategy either. Kaputo is guilt-stricken and probably more upset about his reputation than the harm he caused. As a result of the restraining order issued against him, he has to resign from teaching. The show suggests that perhaps he should have listened to Natalie?

Kaputo is a sympathetic character, one who tries to do the right thing, but the execution of his good intentions goes horribly wrong. He wants to reform the world but can’t do this through a DIY website or from someone from within the system.

Restorative justice is victim-centered justice, which means that it focuses on the needs of the person harmed by the offender. The RJ philosophy is that offenses harm communities. Therefore, one of the goals besides meeting the needs of the victim is to heal the broken social fabric of the community in which the offense took place and restore shared faith in the community. It is about making amends and achieving justice for the victim, thereby giving the offender an alternative to punitive correction. RJ processes, in the real world, take hours of preparation and take place outside of the prison and are facilitated by community members trained in RJ.

Perhaps “Orange is the New Black” suggests that in order for RJ to work we first need to be practitioners of this cultural shift before we can bring it into institutions. All characters in the series, need to own up to the way they have wronged others and put an end to cycles of violence. RJ is a difficult, emotional process that does not always work and may not be right for the victim or the offender—no should one expect it to work all of the time. However, promoters of RJ are hopeful that the outcome will address the victims needs for closure and ensure that the offender accepts responsibility, atones for the offense, and moves forward with her life—without the offense defining her.