Summary

Chapter 13 begins with the passing of a smoking ban in Danbury, a new measure that disturbed many of the inmates. Piper considered the irony of the fact that smoking killed 435,000 people a year compared to the 17,000 killed by the illegal drugs many of her peers were imprisoned for.

The population in Danbury was dwindling as they had stopped accepting new inmates in an effort to avoid taking in Martha Stewart.

In September, Danbury held its annual prison Job Fair, which merely gave “lip service” to the assertion that prisoners would have any hope of returning to a smooth and meaningful lifestyle upon exoneration. Although Piper was lucky enough to have a job waiting for her after her sentence, she knew very few others could say the same. Although the outside presenters at the job fair met the inmates with much more respect than...