How To Be a Prisoner

Sam Zalutsky/Spiegel & Grau

Piper Kerman, who wrote the now-famous Orange Is the New Black about her experiences in the prison system, shares some of the lessons she learned, including how to make a cheesecake from borrowed and pilfered items (story, link to audio version, great video): http://www.npr.org/2013/10/24/240317997/piper-kerman

   "Truth is much stranger than fiction when it comes to the criminal justice system," Kerman says in this interview. That, of course, is hardly surprising. Much of what she says, while also hardly surprising, is nonetheless pretty fascinating: http://www.npr.org/2013/08/12/211339427/behind-the-new-black-the-real-pipers-prison-story