Was Piscatella really that bad? - Orange Is the New Black (2013) Discussion

[–] lostintheyes 9 years ago

I think he was bad because he was one sided. To him, he doesn't believe there's any innocence for inmates, so no matter how corrupted or messed up the guards were under him were, he would believe it to be justified. I just finished the season... And I'm so disappointed... And hurt. I have a lot of mixed emotions right now, lol. This was definitely an intense season to watch.

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[–] Terminator991 9 years ago

He was just well disciplined. Most real life correctional officers I know are like that. I think people were just shocked and it was kind of a wake up call that "hey, they ARE in prison!" In short no he wasn't that bad. Humphrey was the psychopath.

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[–] Hank_McCoy 9 years ago

Where was his discipline when Caputo suspended Humphries? Where was his discipline when he was told not to question inmates? His lack of respect for the chain of command spread to his men and the indirect result of that was a gun in the hands of a prisoner.

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[–] onebluestocking 9 years ago

Not to mention, not stopping the guards from making the inmates fight. That's what caused Suzanne to freak out, so that she attacked the guard during the protest, so that he accidentally killed Poussey. It was a chain of events.

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[–] MeTheMachine 9 years ago

His "no-nonsense style" was precisely what emboldened the guards to think they could get away with whatever they wanted. He wasn't really on a quest for order, as he showed initially - if he was, he would have supported Caputo's choice to suspend Humps without pay after the stunt he pulled with Crazy Eyes. His main motive was to make inmates suffer/feel subhuman. Authoritarian approaches are fine in moderation, but he went too far - and that nearly always leads to rebellion.

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[–] PotatoWithEyes 9 years ago

Okay, I'll admit I lost sympathy for Piscatella when he defended Humphrey (that guy was worse than Pornstache), but for most of the season, I was rooting for him!

Formerly RIP_Matthew_Abaddon.

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[–] lindbergemma 9 years ago

I thought he was alright for some time, but all the "you're a criminal, you have no rights, you are being punished, you should suffer"... I bet he would have hanged them all if he could, and if he found out about the baby mouse, he would probably make all of them eat some. I'm sorry, but his views seem kind of effed up.

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[–] Dauw 8 years ago

"you're a criminal, you have no rights, you are being punished, you should suffer"

Yeah, this line of reasoning is exactly what is wrong with the justice system in America. A lot of people are more concerned with making people suffer than actually making productive, well-adjusted citizens out of them, which sucks for everyone when those people are eventually let out.

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[–] le_papillon 9 years ago

Are you joking? He was awful and clearly had some personal issues to work through. It was obvious that he had some sort of hard-on for punishing and humiliating the inmates, which he didn't really see as human. For all his strictness, he had no problem breaking rules just to be vindictive or covering up murders.

Bullies tend to gravitate toward careers that allow them to abuse their power over others. Let's not pretend we don't see this in real life with the police.

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[–] PotatoWithEyes 9 years ago

Some of his subordinates had hard-ons for punishing and humiliating inmates. I didn't get the impression he himself did...

Formerly RIP_Matthew_Abaddon.

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[–] le_papillon 9 years ago

I'm not sure about that. He seemed really angry and bitter during his dealings with some of the inmates, like he had an axe to grind. His underlings behaved the way they did because he allowed and encouraged them. It'll be interesting what Caputo was talking about when he mentioned skeletons in his closet.

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[–] summerishere77 9 years ago

Well, Piscatella is gay, he worked at a male high security prison before he was transferred the the women facility.
We can deduce from that and what Caputo was intimating, he was doing what Pornstache was doing...having sex with the prisoners.

After all the crap Piscatella did and allowed...I was happy to see him shocked and a little scared.
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[–] wolfandthief 9 years ago

Yes. He was awful. It's one thing to be tough and no nonsense but he had no regards for how badly the prisHon was being run, even encouraged it. He took Piper's idea of racial profiling and went with it. He didn't even bat an eye when Caputo brought up the fact that his guards had prisoners fight for their own twisted form of entertainment. Also there's the story of why he got fired from the male prison facility that has yet to come out.

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[–] stephanielimon77 9 years ago

I think the skeletons in his closet had to do with his sexuality. I'm quite sure there was some reference made about him being gay...

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[–] alliemack30 9 years ago

I think the skeletons in his closet had to do with his sexuality. I'm quite sure there was some reference made about him being gay...

He had no issue telling Piper he was gay, so I don't think his sexuality was any secret. However, it was heavily implied that something happened with the male inmates at his last position, as Caputo alluded to when he tells him to go home in the last episode.

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[–] trudat20 9 years ago

If he returns and is around long enough to get a backstory - he's probably going to be gang raped in the male facility

~Silence is Golden and Duct tape is Silver~

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[–] lefecious 9 years ago

You guys are missing an important aspect of Piscatella.

He is a war veteran. So yes, he's super disciplined and harsh but that's not really his flaw.

His flaw is that he thinks that him and his CO's are a "brotherhood"

This is something he learned in the military, where you become so close to your unit that you guys would literally die to protect each other. It's this attitude that ultimately causes his failure.

Remember he always respected Caputo and followed orders UNTIL Caputo threatened one of his men. Then his "brotherhood" instinct kicked in and he defended humps so fiercely that he even threatened to walk out and take all the CO's with him.

Then when he was torturing Red, it was because she had the dead CO's keys, so he knew she knew something about the murder. And once again, his "brotherhood" thing kicked in and he went too far in trying to force info out of Red by torturing her via sleep deprivation, because in his mind NOBODY hurts a CO. They are his platoon-mates. Protect the brotherhood at all costs.

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[–] Ihatesleazyshows 9 years ago

He was different than the guards we have seen before. Sure we had Pornstache previously but for the most part the guards were pretty decent and some were somewhat friends or friendly to the inmates. He wasn't, he thought they were trash. There were a few guards with decency (like the blonde woman and even Bayler) but most had an agenda.

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[–] caseyyau 9 years ago

No. He is a horrible human being because he doesn't believe the inmates are human beings deserving dignity and respect

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[–] TheDude1986 9 years ago

Originally, I just thought Piscatella was just power hungry and very aggressive as a guard.

I didn't think he did anything really sketchy until he defended Humphries and his other guards when they were clearly not following any sort of protocol other than to cause as much discomfort as possible to the inmates. That's when I knew he was bad news, as a guard.

I think he is despicable now.

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[–] EdmundOG 9 years ago

Remember, that was right after a dead guard was found in the garden. I think that was his breaking point. Like you said, before that, he wasn't sketchy, just a hardass.

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