Stanville Prison, 2003

The majority of Kushner’s novel takes place in Stanville prison, a fictional maximum-security prison for female inmates in California’s Central Valley, some place between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Stanville is the point of contact for the diverse cast of characters in the novel; every character is either an inmate, a staff member, or knows someone behind bars there. It is the site where the present time of the novel is almost always taking place, but characters regularly reflect on their lives prior to their time as inmates; the other locations the novel visits are almost always in memory or retrospection.

The Transit Bus

When the novel opens, Romy is one of 60 prisoners being transferred to Stanville prison from county lockup in Los Angeles. The first several chapters narrated by Romy take place on the bus, as she takes in the chaos around her and...