The show starts out with several sex scenes, which encourage Surette's view of the women in the corrections system. Breasts are openly displayed, with women commenting on them, acting as sex crazed beasts.
The show displays the complicated nature of relationships within the prison, with guards that are using their positions, snitches, insults, and race barriers. This does break with some traditional shows, as it actually displays the conflicts within the race lines, even going so far as to show the Hispanic woman who doesn't speak Spanish is excluded.
For Surette, this truly is a lost world, separate from the 'real world', and with it's own rules, actions, and ideas. The prison is harsh, most of the inmates are ugly, cruel, and innately guilty. It does break with this with the main character, an attractive woman who is mostly innocent, guilty only of following her lover 10 years before.
It also reinforces most of Surette's ideas on the correctional officers, who are incompetent, indifferent to her suffering, and using their positions for their own pleasure (sex). There are, however, exceptions to this in the show, with the main character's officer. He seems to understand how the facility can work, and goes so far as to bribe another inmate to get information on what is bothering the main character.
I suppose that although the main character is shown in a sympathetic light, Surette would argue that it would not lead to any changes in correctional facilities.
Overall, this show does break with some of the previous ideas, but it also cannot stray too far without losing public interest, so it does include some of our preconceived notions of what prison is like. It reinforces many prejudices, and while it does help break a few, Surette would likely argue that it keeps within most of the boundaries of prison shows.
