Why Every Orange Is the New Black Inmate Is in Prison

Before we find out about Suzanne's crime, we get a taste of her upbringing. She was adopted by a white, suburban couple, and despite loving her daughter, Suzanne's mother often pushed her to accomplish more than she was comfortable with — like singing a song at her graduation.

A season four flashback reveals that Suzanne used to work as a greeter at a superstore. One day, she sees a kid whose family she knows from the store at the park, and she brings him home to play videogames with her. After a while, he wants to go home, but she doesn't understand. He tries to use the fire escape to leave, but falls — presumably to his death. It's one of the darkest backstories we've seen on the show.

So far, Poussey's crime is unclear. What we do know about her past is that she lived in Germany, where her father was stationed with the US Army. She had a romantic relationship with the base commander's daughter, and this is what got her family reassigned to the States.

In a season four flashback, Poussey is back in America visiting her friends. She gets separated from them and has a wild night on the town, befriending some drag queens and hitching a ride from bicycling monks who turn out to be members of an improv group.

By the end of season four, we find out that Poussey is in prison for being busted over a small amount of weed.

Brook lands in prison due to some illegal political activism. In a flashback during season four, we learn that she used to be a door-to-door activist. One day, she agrees to go to the house of a registered sex offender if a guy she has a crush on will go out with her. She goes, and it turns out that he's actually a really nice guy who got a bad rap. Once she gets back to headquarters, she boasts about how awful he was and that he tried to seduce her. That's as far as we've gotten into Brook's backstory, but I'm betting that she takes her lie too far and the guy presses charges for further besmirching his already tainted name.

Lolly is legitimately crazy, and from what we've seen, she may have just ended up in prison for being homeless and trying to sell coffee out of a grocery cart.

On season six, we learn that Maritza Ramos used to work as a waitress in a club. She used to scam customers by putting water in vodka bottles, tripping while delivering the bottle, guilting men into paying for it, then pocketing the cash. While running these little scams in the club, she meets a man who takes her scam game up a level. He takes her to a luxury car dealership where he tells her to find an older, wealthy man, take his ID, and steal the car in his name. Maritza quickly finds her mark — an older man named Edward Spencer. However, just as she's about to drive away, one of the sales guys joins her and Spencer. During the test drive, the salesman asks questions about their relationship, and it quickly becomes evident that Maritza is scamming Spencer. In a fit of desperation, Maritza feigns illness. Both men step out the car to check if she's alright and in that brief second, she runs back into the car and drives away.

We know before celebrity chef Judy even gets to Litchfield that she is in prison for tax evasion.

Ten years before she landed in prison, Piper helped her then-girlfriend, Alex Vause, smuggle drug money during an extended vacation in Europe.

Alex used to be a smuggler for a major drug cartel. Though she loved Piper, she also used her as a pawn in her smuggling operation. Ten years after the crime, Alex named Piper as an accomplice, and the two both end up at Litchfield.

It's not completely clear what exactly lands Red in prison, but we do know that she and her husband owned a restaurant and that Red became involved with the Russian mafia. She punched one of the mob wives in the boob and ruptured an implant, but her solid business advice to the husband allowed her to stick around.

In season four, we find out that Red had several heads in her freezer at the time of her arrest.

While we first assume Morello is planning her wedding to her fiancé, Christopher, it's revealed that Christopher is the man she was stalking. After meeting at a post office, they went on one date, and she proceeded to stalk him. Eventually, she planted an explosive device in his actual girlfriend's car, attempting to murder her.

Taystee gets bumped from foster home to foster home throughout her tumultuous childhood. This leads her to cross paths with Vee, who runs a heroin drug ring in the neighborhood. Vee saves Taystee from a life on the streets, but forces her to work as an "accountant" for the drug operation in exchange. Taystee's exact charge is never disclosed, but it's heavily implied she goes away for her connection to to the drug ring.

Related:

A Sad Reminder of How Taystee Ended Up in Prison on Orange Is the New Black

Nicky is a former heroin addict who was raised by a wealthy but mostly absent mother. She was arrested for stealing a taxi with her friends so that she can get to her dealer in time to get drugs for the weekend.

Though we've seen flashbacks of Big Boo as a child, the precise nature of her crime is unknown. We do know she ran a gambling ring and she refers to herself as a "thieving dyke" on season three, so it may have something to do with stealing.

In season three, it's revealed that Leanne had been part of an Amish community before she heads to Litchfield. She left her family and got into drugs with a bad crowd, but decided to return. She made the fatal mistake of leaving her backpack filled with incriminating stuff near the outskirts of the town, and the police hauled her in. Leanne made a deal, agreeing to turn on her old friends and wear a wire.

As a young woman, Norma fell in love with a charismatic cult leader. Decades later, all his other wives had left him and she was the only one still standing. Though she was still optimistic about their potential, he screamed at her and insulted her intelligence. She promptly pushed him off a cliff, killing him.

Watson was a talented track runner in high school, but her speed didn't make her very popular with boys. She was rejected by the cool crowd and started hanging out with some thugs. Together, they robbed a store and Watson was arrested when she purposely slowed down while running from the cops.

We don't know the details of Gina's crime, but it's been implied that murder and embezzlement play a part.

Pennsatucky is sent to Litchfield for shooting an abortion-clinic worker. Though it's assumed this is because of her serious religious beliefs, it's revealed that she shot the woman for making a remark about this being Pennsatucky's fifth abortion. Needless to say, Pennsatucky doesn't react well to being disrespected.

Yoga Jones is in the pen for killing a child. She used to be a marijuana farmer, but one day she mistook a child for a deer and shot the boy.

Flaca's crime is essentially being too smart. She started selling fake drugs at her school, but one of the kids to whom she sold the drugs thought he was really high and committed suicide by jumping off the roof of the school. She was arrested for fraud and endangerment.

Daya's exact crime is unknown, but because of what we've seen of her background, we can assume it's drug-related. She grew up in an abusive environment with her mother, and at one point she slept with her mother's drug-dealer boyfriend to spite her mother.

Cindy used to be the world's worst airport security employee. She would regularly harass and steal from travelers, and though it's not explicitly said that this behavior led to her arrest, it can be assumed.

A nun since young adulthood, Sister Ingalls became really involved in social activism. This continued throughout her career with the church, even publishing a book called Nun Shall Pass. Due to her growing hubris, the church refused to support her any longer, and she was arrested after handcuffing herself to a flagpole at a nuclear test site.

We don't know exactly what crimes lands Stella in Litchfield, but we do know a little bit about her backstory. She and her parents moved from Australia to America because of her father's job, but when her parents eventually left the States, she decided to stay.

Back in the day, Miss Rosa was a pretty serious bank robber. She was good at stealing money, but she was cursed. Her crew of men dwindled as she would take one as her lover before he inevitably ended up dead by the end of the robbery. Eventually, she got caught.

It's not explicitly explained, but one might assume Vee's imprisonment has to do with the drug ring she ran on the outside.

Barb (Mackenzie Phillips) and Carol's (Henny Russell) crews are behind all of the violence between the warring cell blocks in present-day season six, but the flashback to their sociopathic teenage days is enough to send a few chills down your spine. The sisters, known as the "little Debbie murderers," do just that — murder their little sister, Debbie. Debbie is a competitive gymnast, so their family relocates all the time for her competitions. The older sisters deeply resent her because of this, so one night when their parents are out, they lure her to a half-frozen pond. Then, they lock her in the car and push it into said pond, leaving little Debbie to drown.

In Daddy's flashback, it's revealed that she ran an independent escort service that catered to wealthy, older businessmen. Although she genuinely seems to care for the women who work for her, the story takes a dark turn when one of the girls is found dead after spending the night with an important client. Instead of calling 911, Daddy instructs the man on how to get rid of the body and come up with an alibi. We don't know for sure that this specific death landed her in prison, but it seems like a strong possibility.

Badison's season six flashback takes us back to her high school days, when she was known by her real name, Madison (although her classmates cruelly label her "Fartison"). Between having a violent meltdown during one of her classes, hitting her mother in the face, and later seriously harming a fellow camper by lighting her on fire, it's clear that she has explosive anger issues. The exact crime that lands her in Litchfield max still eludes us, unless the fire-starting incident is the cause.

During season four, we see that Maria is the daughter of a Dominican equality activist. As a teenage girl, she sees a Mexican guy dropping money into a bush while running from the cops. She grabs it and finds him later to give it back, but that's not actually what leads to her arrest. Instead, in season seven, it's Maria decisions as a manager for a retail clothing store that put her away.

We find out that the man she's cheating on her boyfriend with convinces her to switch out real True Religion jeans in her store with counterfeits he has from overseas, and the two of them will split the extra cash. Unfortunately for Maria, three government agents catch on to their scam and arrest her, throwing her in prison.