Piper Kerman's memoir "Orange is the New Black" is way less violent than the addictive Netflix series it inspired, but one part of her year in a low-security federal prison sounds highly creepy.
Several guards at the Danbury, Conn. federal prison groped women inmates with impunity, according to Kerman, a yuppie who bonded with her fellow inmates despite their different backgrounds.
It's not shocking that some guards at the prison got handsy given the absolute powerlessness of women inmates. Kerman's descriptions of pat-downs are still disturbing, though (especially if you've imagined yourself in a federal prison after a marathon viewing session of the fictionalized version of "Orange").
While most guards went out of their way to avoid touching the female inmates too much during routine pat-downs, others relished "grabbing wherever they wanted," Kerman writes.
More from Kerman:
They were allowed to touch the lower edge of our bras, to make sure we weren't smuggling goodies in there — but were they really allowed to squeeze our breasts? Sometimes it was shocking who would grope you — like polite, fair, and otherwise upstanding Mr. Black, who did it in a businesslike way. Other male COs were brazen, like the short, red-faced young bigmouth who asked me loudly and repeatedly, "Where are the weapons of mass destruction?" while he fondled my ass and I gritted my teeth.
There wasn't any point in reporting this misconduct, she writes. Female prisoners who said they were groped were locked in solitary for their own "protection."
SEE ALSO: How Going To A Women's College Helped A Yuppie 'Fit In' At A Federal Prison
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