Tuesday night on All In: Piper Kerman, author of the bestseller Orange Is the New Black which inspired the new Netflix series of the same name, will join Chris Hayes to talk about her memoir and the year in prison that inspired it. The Smith College graduate was 24 years old when she became involved with a drug-smuggling ring for several months at the urging of an older girlfriend. Years later, after settling down in New York with a boyfriend and promising career, Kerman was indicted on charges of money laundering and drug trafficking. She spent thirteen months in federal prison in Danbury, Conn., where she witnessed the issues of mental illness, racism and the lack of rehabilitation for inmates first-hand. Since her release in 2005, Kerman has become an advocate for prison reform.
“The thing that is most important is to send fewer people to prison in the first place,” she said recently on NPR. “Prisons have a really limited capacity to rehabilitate as they currently exist.” Jeff Smith, assistant professor of politics and advocacy at Milano, The New School for Management and Urban Policy, will also join the discussion about improving the prison system.
Plus: Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP, and Richard Hasen, Professor of Law and Political Science at UC Irvine School of Law, will join Chris Hayes to talk about the new North Carolina law that restricts early voting, eliminates same-day registration, and requires voters to show government-issued ID at the polls.
Later, Hayes will delve into three stories about deception in government, as well as a new study finding that white people tend to be against affirmative action until they learn that Asians score higher than them.
Rachel Simon
Rachel Simon is a writer and editor based in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the author of “Pickleball for All: Everything but the ‘Kitchen’ Sink.” Her work has been published in The New York Times, Glamour, Vulture, Teen Vogue and more. You can find her at @rsimon113. Recommended
