How They Ended Up In Prison: OITNB's Inmates

If you haven't finished binge watching Season 2 of Orange is the New Black... get on me and my grandmother's level because this baby is full of Season 2 spoilers. If you're like me, you're obsessed with finding out how every inmate ended up in prison (so you obviously don't f*ck up like them). Here's a mostly comprehensive list of what we know and what we don't know about Litchfield's inmates.

Piper Kerman

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Piper helped her former girlfriend, Alex Vause, smuggle drug money through customs at an airport in Europe nearly 10 years earlier. Alex named her as an accomplice and Piper was sent to prison.

Alex Vause

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Alex Vause was a drug smuggler for an international drug cartel. That one was easy...

Galina "Red" Reznikov

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Red’s real reason for coming to prison is still unknown and I’m not too sure if that's something you’d ask her. Her family’s store was used as a storage facility for the Russian mob after she punched one of the mob wives in the tit. We can assume that she probably ended up as an accessory to a larger crime.

Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson

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Taystee’s past is one of the more puzzling ones. In season 1, she says that she was a state ward until the age of 16 and then went to juvenile prison…. But we’ve also seen flashbacks with Vee, which lead us to believe Vee rescued her from the foster system. Taystee’s first conviction was most likely due to her association with dealing drugs with Vee but she also mentioned in an AA meeting (season 1) that she woke up next to a dead man covered in BBQ sauce. She was paroled from Litchfield in season 1 to only come back after purposely re-offending in violation of her parole.

Poussey Washington

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We saw a flashback of Poussey in Germany pulling a gun on the base commander but being stopped by her father…. but the real reason she’s in prison is for selling weed.

P: “I sold weed not real shit”

Taystee: “Real enough to get your ass locked in here”

Miss Rosa

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Rosa was a pretty successful bank robber back in her day. She would get a high from all the money and couldn't stop herself, even when 2 of her boyfriends died after robbing banks with her. During one of her chemo treatments, she and a young cancer patient robbed a nurse.

Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren

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While we did get a glimpse into Crazy Eyes’ past, the crime that got her locked up has yet to be revealed. However, the show does mention a past with violent tendencies and she mentions an incident with her neighbor although no more details were given.

Nicky Nichols

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Nicky was raised by a nanny because her socialite mother didn't have the time for her. While we don't know exactly why she is in prison, she used to be a junkie that resulted in her needing open heart surgery.

Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett

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Pennsatucky shot an abortion clinic worker in broad daylight after the worker made an offensive comment about this being Tiffany’s fifth abortion. We all know how angry Pennsatucky gets when someone disrespects her.

Sophia Burset

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Before transitioning, Sophia Burset was a firefighter who committed fraud in order to finance her hormone treatments and surgeries. It is revealed that her own son turned her in.

Dayanara "Daya" Diaz

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It is not known the exact reason why Daya ended up in the slammer, but we can assume it was for drug related charges. Daya slept with her mother’s drug dealing boyfriend after her mother got sent to prison and Daya grew up in an abusive household where she was forced to raise her siblings.

Lorna Morello

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During season 2, we find out that Lorna Morello is a delusional stalker. She was sent to jail for stalking a man named Christopher that she went on 1 date with. Oh, and to top it off she also attempted to murder his then-girlfriend with a homemade bomb she put under the girlfriend's car. During season two she drives away from the hospital while Rosa was getting chemo to break into his house and although she is never reprimanded by the police, Christopher knows it was her.

Carrie "Big Boo" Black

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Big Boo’s past is pretty much a mystery, although we do know that she suffers from anxiety, which is why Litchfield allowed her to get a therapy dog… until as she said “shit got weird” aka peanut butter and licking.

Janae Watson

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Janae Watson used to be a track star and robbed a store with her boyfriend one night, only to get caught in an alley by the police. Her boyfriend went a different way, didn’t get caught and let her take the fall for the robbery. Typical.

Erica "Yoga" Jones

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Yoga Jones was sent to prison for killing a child. She used to be a marijuana farmer and mistook a child for a deer and shot him.

Brook Soso

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Brook found herself in prison due to her political activism. We also found out that she spent 8 months in a tree at some point so perhaps her arrest was related. She also doesn't shower, which could be a crime within itself.

Yvonne “Vee” Parker

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Vee ran a drug ring using children she “rescued” from the foster system. While it’s not definitive why she ended up in prison, we can assume it’s due to her smack dealing past or for the fact that she's utterly insane since she had sex with a guy she raised and then set him up to get shot. Oh, Vee.

Sister Jane Ingalls

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Sister was a former nun who loved gaining fame for her political activism. She is in prison for trespassing at a nuclear testing facility.

Aleida Diaz (Daya's mom)

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Aleida was bagging drugs for her boyfriend in her home and took the fall for him. He never visited her in prison. She also totally neglected her children and still doesn't really give a shit about them.

Gloria Mendoza

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Before prison, Gloria was a victim of domestic abuse and in order to save money to escape she committed food stamp fraud.

Gina Murphy

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Gina was incarcerated for murder and embezzlement. However, in season one she mentioned that while she did steal, she was wrongly accused of embezzlement and that the guy shot himself.

Cindy “Black Cindy” Hayes

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Black Cindy had a past working for TSA and often stole from passengers suitcases, including an ipad she gave to her sister/child and idiotically left the previous owners photos on. We aren’t 100% sure but her incarceration was probably due to theft since she doesn't seem to be the brightest crayon in the box.

Marisol "Flaca" Gonzalez & Maritza Ramos

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We don’t know exactly what the Spanish Harlem BFF's did to land in prison. However, in the episode when they're trying to intimidate the kids in the Scared Straight program Flaca throws her arm around Maritza and says not to embezzle or illegally download media so perhaps that's what they're in for. We also know that that Flaca has a boyfriend who is apparently the “King of Molly” in NYC so her charge could also be drug related.

Maria Ruiz

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We don’t know what Maria did but she has a supportive boyfriend who visits her and is raising her child she had while she was in prison. We also know that she has a handful of years left in Litchfield.

Miss Claudette

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Before Miss Claudette was transferred to max during season 1, we found out about her shady past. However, it remains unknown whether she was sent to prison for her illegal cleaning service that used child labor or for the possible murder of a customer who abused one of her cleaning girls.