Wednesday, August 07, 2019

Orange Is the New Black Takes on Immigration

I was pretty surprised to see the last season of this Netflix show to focus on Trump's horrific treatment of newcomers. The series managed to put human faces on something we usually just read about. It began when several inmates were fortunate enough to get early release, only to be immediately intercepted by ICE.

One of the first things you notice is that ICE detainees have fewer rights than prisoners. No one wants to work in their kitchen because, unlike prisoners, the detainees aren't paid. Their access to phones is limited as well, Whereas we frequently see collect calls going out from the prison, the ICE detainees need to buy phone cards, and that's only possible when the vending machine works.

When are they going to be released? Five to seven? No one knows. Whenever the so-called wheels of justice are ready to move. We see babies going to trial. We see young children without lawyers, without awareness of what's even going on around them facing judges. How these judges mange to sleep at night is a mystery. 

It's one thing, in my view at least, to deport dangerous criminals. It's quite another to break up families because one or more members aren't documented. In the show, a boyfriend goes to visit a detainee, ICE surreptitiously checks his credentials as he visits, and when they deem them lacking they send the guy back to Honduras. So the woman in prison loses one more all too precious means of support.

You also get a look into private prisons, always focused on the profit motive. Hey, let's close the psych ward because it's costing us too much money. We'll simply drug them. Let's take a look at which drugs get us volume discounts, and that's what we'll use. Is it good for the patients? It doesn't remotely matter as long as it's good for the bottom line.

Let's expand. We'll build an ICE holding facility. We'll collect by the day for each person we hold on to. In the show, they get like $150 per day per person. That's a pretty good profit when you simply run a dormitory where people are literally on top of one another. I'm not sure when they wrote this show, or where they did their research, but it actually costs around $775 a day to keep immigrants in detention. For that price, we could put them all up at the Hilton and let them eat room service. It's kind of remarkable that Trump, who passes himself off as an astute businessman because he stiffs everyone who works for him, would agree to such outrageous price-gouging. Of course it isn't his money, and who knows if he even pays taxes, so why the hell should he care?

This is the kind of system that spreads corruption like a virus. Of course the employees of the privatized prison are underqualified, probably so they can be underpaid, and need to find other ways to supplement their income. They could drive Ubers after work, but with a thriving market for drugs inside the actual prison, why bother? I suppose ICE employees are better paid, but they're on a mission. Their mission seems to preclude actual concern for their fellow humans, so they're treated with the same contempt that emanates from the mouth of Donald Trump.

We see the story of a young woman cruelly separated from her young children. She's very smart, and works like hell to fight the machine that's crushing her, but the odds are way against her. The theme of unfairness pervades the show, and hits not only immigrants, but also those caught in the penal system. We also see how prisoners are tossed aside and subject to all sorts of nonsense that makes returning as productive citizens challenging, to say the least.

I'm going to Texas in a week to actually see what these places are like, and I'm sure I'll be writing about it right here. Meanwhile, if you want to see how Donald Trump's anti-immigrant machine treats humans it finds inconvenient, I highly recommend this show. If you're a teacher with a few days available for binge-watching, this is more than worth your time.

It's not all bad. There are stories of redemption, of growth, of inspiration. There is some great acting. You're left, though, with a portrait of a heavily flawed system, one that rewards corruption, and profits handsomely off human misery. You're left with a clarion call that it's high time for a change. 
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