If you like me, or practically anyone else in the world right now you counted down the days until "Orange is the New Black" season 4 came out. Netflix is doing a great job of keeping our anticipation at a year’s pace, however, it’s very much worth it.
While the storyline keeps getting more and more enticing so do the character development. Each season has been compacted with “flashbacks” of characters in the show, giving the show a deeper meaning behind the motives in the plot and of each character. However, I have no problem binge watching a season in less than a week.
While I may have binge watched season 4 incredibly fast (no regrets) I was astonished at all the character development in this season, specifically one character known as Lolly. The series has done an incredible job with brining light to certain dilemmas in the show, and mental illness has been one of them.
For those who didn’t know Lolly showed up briefly in season 2 on the plane with Piper, only small exchanges were made then, but when Leitchfield gets a handful of new inmates at the end of season 3, Lolly starts to make more of an impact. In season 4 we get to see the character development of Lolly, and without giving away too many spoilers at once, Lolly goes crazy. When the flashback of her past is shown we see that Lolly has been suffering from multiple diagnosis included schizophrenia, delusions, and voices in her head.
The thing that struck me as most important though was that while Lolly was suffering from multiple types of illnesses it was the way she was being treated, long before she was even in the prison. She was treated with disgusting looks, and talked too like a criminal by local law enforcement. When in reality all she was trying to do was shake the voices in her head. She never posed a threat, in fact she showed more kindness regardless of what she had.
So what does this say about mental illness? For me, it was an eye opener on how many people are actually suffering from a mental illness and it being treated with a prison or jail enforcement. According to a study done by the U.S Department of Justice in 2005, about 56 percent of inmates in a state prison suffer from a mental disorder, that’s more than half of inmates. And like Lolly in Orange is the New Black, they are being treated in prison facilities with no help, or being locked away in psych with most of the time no real criminal history. (If you recall Lolly was thrown in prison being of too many “disturbing the peace” warnings).
There needs to be a call to action for help with people experiencing mental illnesses in prisons, especially if more than half of inmates in prisons are dealing with some sort of illness. The solution isn’t just throwing them in psych ward by a counselor.
May we one day see more hope for those suffering, and thanks to programs like Orange is the New Black we are now aware of these problems.
