Okay, for those of you starting OITNB for the first time, the basic premise is that Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), a relatively successful adult white woman from a well-to-do family, is going to prison for helping her ex-girlfriend Alex Vause (Laura Prepon) smuggle drugs in Belgium over ten years ago (which I guess is literally what happened to the real Piper).

Why so long? It turns out that when Alex finally got arrested, she flipped on Piper and offered her up to get a lighter sentence (we also find out in episode one that the Statute of Limitations on Piper's charges were 12 years).

So, this episode was (mostly) about how Piper went to prison and about her entry into prison. Like I said, I am not doing full recaps of the first four seasons, but I am going to try to explain or point out things that I find important to discuss as a formerly incarcerated person.

The title of the episode is "I Wasn't Ready"

I guess my response is that no first-time prisoner is ever "ready" for incarceration.

1. "Prison Not Jail"

Piper makes a really important distinction at the beginning of the episode when her friend Polly Harper (Maria Dizzia) mistakenly suggests that Piper is missing her baby shower to go to jail. Piper clarifies that she is going to "Prison" not "Jail."

Most likely, Piper spent some time in Jail when she was first arrested before someone bailed her out. Generally, you get arrested, go to jail and either stay in jail until your trial or sentencing. If you are sentenced to one year or under, you will likely spend that time in jail and if you are sentenced to over one year, you will likely spend the bulk of your remaining time in prison.

Jails are generally run at the county level and prisons are either State or Federal.

One other confusing element, often you are sent to jail until a spot is open for you in prison (this was not the case for Piper).

So, if you are in jail you are either awaiting a trial, awaiting sentencing on a plea, serving up to a year-long sentence, or waiting to be shipped to prison.

Jails are usually more brutal than prisons (although both can be very brutal). Jails usually offer less space for more inmates, less time out of your cell and block, and don't provide exercise yards.

The food is almost always inedible (more on that in a second) and the "fees" you are charged for virtually everything you do are much higher (commissary, phone calls etc.).

With the caveats that I was not in a Federal prison or a Woman's prison, there were a few other little clarifications I wanted to make about some of the details that seemed slightly off to me.

Piper asks the inmate Lorna Morello (Yael Stone) if Lorna is allowed to drive the van around the inside of the prison complex. Lorna responds, "We do everything around here."

In the prisons and jails that I was in, you were never put in a vehicle without an officer and without being cuffed (usually hand and foot). The reasons for this, as much as I hated it, seemed pretty obvious (if you are in a car or van you can make a run for it).

There is also a scene where Piper asks Assistant Warden Joe Caputo (Nick Sandow) to use the phone.

In the place where I was incarcerated, this would never have happened in a million years. In addition, you have the option to call "collect" (at exorbitant cost) from jail and prison phones (so Piper could have called even if her money had not been deposited in her commissary account either way).

Last but not least, the scene where the women have to line up in their cells for "count-time" is pretty accurate. Every facility I was in had counts throughout the day. The lower the security level of the facility and the more freedom you have at the facility, the higher the number of counts.

Oh, and the part about sleeping on the top of your bedding is also accurate.

One other little insider thing, in jail, you often don't get pillows. Takes a bit to figure out how to adjust to sleeping without a pillow for the first time in your life.

2. "No Visitors Today"

When Piper and her fiance Larry Bloom (Jason Biggs) drive up to the prison for her to surrender herself they pass by a guard who says "No Visitors Today."

While this was not a big part fo the plot, I think they mentioned it for a reason.

Visits are really important when you are in prison but they are a really contentious and constantly renegotiated bargain between inmates, the families and friends of inmates, and prison administrations.

Why are they important? Prisoners connection back to the "real world" is where "hope" lives. If safety is your preferred metric, studies show that visits reduce recidivism. But, perhaps even more importantly, many children of prisoners only know their parents through visitations. Many families only get to see their incarcerated loved ones during visits.

Sadly, when budget cuts come down usually the first thing cut is visiting hours. Visiting hours are rarely available in the evenings when it would be likely for most people to be able to visit without having to take a day off of work.

And even more problematic, at least in Michigan, they move prisoners around a lot to prisons all over the state that are rarely near their friends and families.

Many of the people who visited me in prison had to take a day off from work, drive two hours to and from the prison, and be willing to be searched.

Given the constraints, I was always humbled to have the visits that I got.

Just last week, there was a nationwide event called the "Day of Empathy" designed to increase empathy for prisoners and to allow the formerly incarcerated to tell their stories to legislators. Nation Outside was a co-sponsor in Michigan and I personally talked to three legislators.

One of the ten issues on our agenda was creating a Family Advisory Council to help guide Department of Corrections decision-making on issues like:

* The incredibly high costs of phone calls and emails (in Michigan they are moving to a new carrier with even higher rates). Oh, and in case you missed it, the Trump Administration is likely going to roll back FCC protections in this are as well.

* Video-Conferencing ONLY visits. This is another new trend which has become popular because it both reduces supervision costs and also allows another opportunity for price gouging the most vulnerable and beaten down families on earth (prisoners families bear the brunt of most of these costs).

Obviously, DOC's will argue that they also reduce contraband. But I will bet that when studies of Video-Conferencing only facilities come out, just as much contraband will get into jails and prisons. I will expound on this in later episodes.

* Moving inmates far away from families and friends. As I mentioned before, this is done all the time in Michigan (and happens in many other states as well). I was in prison for just under three years and was moved three times to different areas of the state (Detroit, St. Louis, Jackson). Again, this is another massive cost to the families of the incarcerated and frequently reduces their ability to make visits.