Piper Kerman is an American author and activist best known for her memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison. The book chronicles her experiences in the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, where she served a 13-month sentence for money laundering and drug trafficking. Kerman has since become an advocate for criminal justice reform, speaking out against mass incarceration and the prison-industrial complex. She has written extensively on the subject, including her second book, Orange Is the New Black: 10th Anniversary Edition, which was released in 2019. Kerman has also appeared on numerous television shows and podcasts, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian, and has been a guest lecturer at universities across the United States. Kerman is a graduate of Smith College and holds a master's degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She is a member of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Brennan Center for Justice.