As much as I oppose crime and violence, this is kind of accurate. If you ask virtually any person who has been inside, it really is us versus them and we do not side with the CO’s against prisoners.

Part of that is a safety thing, snitches get stitches (as you might have heard) but part of it is because the only group that recognizes you as a person and not as a sub-human object are the other prisoners.

Even if we don’t all like each other, and often have real grievances, we seriously believe that we deal with those problems inmate to inmate. We also generally dislike CO’s.

I had some CO’s that were okay, but I knew at all times that they would turn against me in a second in defense of another CO. I had no illusions that they would ever tell the truth if they had done something wrong.

There is certainly more than a little self-fulfilling prophecy in this, but I still feel it today.

4. “Professor Fakey Pants”

Taystee is obviously right when she talks about the problems with medical care in prison (I didn’t lose an eye but I only kept my teeth by being insanely careful about saving enough money to always have dental floss, toothpaste, and a toothbrush).

The comment that she made about Tylenol is true too, most of the time you get no assistance from medical. Let me shock you even further when I had MRSA they wouldn’t give me pain reliever because it was available on the commissary list.

In other words, despite being really sick and needing special antibiotics and lockdown, if I did not purchase my own pain reliever in advance, no pain reliever for me (luckily, I always made sure I was loaded up with pain reliever for emergencies).

But, I really wanted to talk about Professor Fakey Pants (aka Morello).

Morello decides unilaterally to deny all of the inmates (including Suzanne) their mental health meds because they are all beautiful and unique unappreciated people who don’t really need help.

As I have mentioned before, I have struggled at times in my life without both depression and panic disorder and I cannot tell you how many times people have told me meds were unnecessary (usually before they went off meds) or that treatment wasn’t important (usually before they had a meltdown).

I totally understand that there are a ton of bad therapists and that sometimes meds can make people worse and not better. But, slow your roll, just because therapy can be counterproductive and meds can get poorly prescribed, it doesn’t mean that you can necessarily function well without your meds.

In fact, for many people struggling with mental challenges, not having meds can cause abject misery and even if they don’t “need” the meds, they are often dependent on them and withdrawal without medical supervision can cause serious problems and even death or death by suicide.

So, basically, Morello has never been more “Loca” then she has been since taking control of the dispensary and in a way that could actually cause multiple people to literally die.

Awesome.

Even worse, this whole notion that mentally ill people aren’t really mentally ill (pushed also, at times, by the FX series Legion - no really, in season one they suggest that mental illness is really a way of covering up super powers) is batshit crazy.

Remember, I am not saying that Psychiatrists and Psychologists always get everything right, I am suggesting that them getting it wrong does not mean the object of medication doesn’t need to be on meds.