Ithaca, New York

Ithaca is an idyllic university town in upstate New York. Blakinger lives in Ithaca in a series of miserable apartments while she attends Cornell. It takes her a while to break into the drug dealing business here, but she eventually succeeds and deals drugs all over town. Ithaca is politically left-leaning but not nearly permissive enough to look the other way when she is found with $150,000 of heroin. Blakinger is arrested in Ithaca.

Blakinger returns to Ithaca after her incarceration. She succeeds in landing a job at the Ithaca Times and writes well about everything from local city government races to school board disagreements. She thinks that she may spend her entire life as a reporter in Ithaca, but instead she travels extensively and reports on issues of national importance such as basic health care for Texas inmates.

The Tompkins County Jail

Blakinger was held...