It was an interesting microcosm of adapted culture and could be really inspiring. (Inspiring maybe because I’m a nerd and was so bored I had to do something with my own brain.) People will figure out a way to amuse themselves, to connect, to re-frame, to reconcile, to make a home in the most unlikely of places. I may have laughed more, and harder, there than anytime in my life. (Also, cried. Also, raged.) The process of the whole thing (according to Viktor Frankl) follows the stages of grief. It was fascinating to watch that go down over and over with new arrivals. Once you reach surrender, there is some psychological space. And for the people who had access, there were really interesting shifts of perspectives and growth.
-At The Weeklings, Sean Beaudoin interviewed ex-convict, prison reform activist and author Meg Worden about the twenty-three months she served at Bryan Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, for transporting 5,000 ecstasy pills from New York to Missouri–an experience she says wasn’t entirely unlike what is depicted on “Orange is the New Black.”
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