AN UNLIMITED BUDGET

by Rhonda Turpin

     If someone had an unlimited budget, and told you to create your dream,

what would you create?  What is your passion?  What would you provide to the

world as your mark long after you are dead and gone?  Well, everyone is viewing

the Netflix series, ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK.  The show originated at Danbury

Camp, while its author served a short stint here.  At this very moment, I am

being housed at Danbury Camp, serving a 15-year sentence, where I have already

served 10 years.  I do not see any of the buffoonery that is presented in the

comedy- oh, it is a comedy, isn't it?   Prison is real.  When people make it seem

like a bunch of derelicts, and a comedy, the real message is not clear, so I am

here to bring it to you.  Today, at the Camp, I would say that 95% of the 205 women

housed here are mothers and grandmothers.  Many women are waiting and hoping

that the U.S. Sentencing Commission approves the ALL DRUGS MINUS TWO

retroactivity, so that they may receive two levels off.   Children need their mothers

at home.  We are at a Camp.  That means that everyone here is a non-violent

offender, and has less than 10 years left on their sentence.  We could all be

paying into the tax base like other countries. 

     ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK is a powerful statement.  I am thinking that the

author meant that the prison system represents the color orange, and that it

needs nothing short of the Civil Rights Movement to restructure it.  That makes

it black in color, because black people were involved in fighting for their Civil

Rights, and also the prison population is reverting back to prisoners of color

as the majority.  For a few years, ORANGE was white women in the majority, or

close to it at the Camps. 

       If I had an unlimited budget and platform right now, what would I do with it?

I would first of all lobby the public and Congress to get the Smarter Sentencing Act and the

Recidivism Reduction Act passed.  The Smarter Sentencing Act cuts drug sentencing

for non-violent offenders in half, saving the taxpayers billions of dollars over the

next 10 years.  The current bill for prisoners is 88 billion annually, according to the

Department of Justice budget report March 2014, available on their website. 

      If the member of Congress did not want to get on board, I would publicly post

their comments, with why they did not want the bill to pass.  I would veto them in

every way possible. 

      I would get both bills passed by any means necessary.

      Piper Kerman did add other peoples efforts to her social media accounts, but

there was no real advocating for the bill. 

     Secondly, I would create a visiting service for federal inmates.  Many states have

visitation projects, sponsored by large non-profits for a minimal cost.  Children need

to see their parents.  Federal prisoners are usually housed far away from home.

   While in Alderson, actress Rosie O'Donnell talked about how she would like to

implement something like this, when she came to visit Martha Stewart when I was

being housed at Alderson.  It was an excellent idea, but Rosie never acted on the

idea and passion. 

     Piper was here.  She witnessed first hand experience of what prison does to

women and their children.  I love trannies, but to further humiliate the female

population, she staffed a trannie, instead of real women. 

     I read her book, and me and others do not see any of the incidents that she

recorded as fact about Danbury.  Maybe is was because she had unlimited resources

while she was here also, so her prison stay here was actually funny.  Prison is

real, many families are footing the bill, and mothers are attempting to parent

from a jail cell.  How funny is that? 

Rhonda Turpin

author, publisher, prisoner

July 16, 2014

Danbury Camp