Summary

In Chapter 22, after three and a half years in Stanville, Romy got an unexpected visit from her public defender, the man she still referred to as “Johnson’s lawyer” (235). She told the lawyer that she had to get out of prison, that she had grown increasingly despondent. After the lawyer left, Romy admitted to herself that she had started to live for Hauser’s GED classes; Sammy Fernandez suggested to her that Romy should ask him to adopt Jackson, an idea Romy initially found absurd.

One day in Romy’s cell, Laura Lipp reported that there was a man incarcerated in Stanville prison (who the reader later learns is Serenity Smith). This news was divisive among inmates: most were against Serenity’s inclusion and presence in Stanville; a small faction led by Conan, a transgender man, came to her support. Serenity was housed in...