How These 'Orange Is The New Black' Characters Landed In Prison

Nicky Nichols: Theft

Earlier seasons gave us a peek into Nicky's privileged childhood before her slide into drug abuse. But where those flashbacks showed a harsh side of Nicky's mother -- in one, Nicky begs her to "hold me, give me sips of water, anything" as she's lying in a hospital bed -- Season 3 revealed a different picture: one that highlighted Nicky's many faults.

We see her hijack and immediately crash a New York City taxi, plying her mother for cash during the ride home from the police station. She claims to need it to bail her friends out of jail, but later we see that she hasn't, most likely in favor of buying drugs. And, after a plot to steal an acquaintance's rare book collection presumably goes wrong, Nicky ends up at her mother's lawyer's office looking down the barrel of a 10-year sentence as she and her mother exchange barbs.

Carrie "Big Boo" Black: [Fraud]

Boo has evidently never conformed to gender norms. A flashback shows her fighting with her parents over the frilly dress they want her to wear to school for picture day instead of "clothes from the boys' section of JCPenney." (She gives in, reluctantly.)

Later, we see an older Boo take a bet from a bartender and smoothly pick up a girl. Her new friend, however, is immediately turned off seeing Boo's violent reaction to a teenager who harasses them on the street with a gay slur. We later see Boo in a relationship with a woman who encourages her to visit her dying mother. Tattooed, wearing a ripped sweatshirt and buzzed hair, she eventually shows up to the hospital but doesn't make it to her mother's room.

Marisol "Flaca" Gonzales: Fraud and Endangerment

"Hey, more often than not, people believe what you tell them," Flaca's mother says one afternoon after admitting to sewing designer labels on handmade dresses. Flaca helps with her family's seamstress business but is desperate to make a little cash on the side, so she takes a cue from her drug-dealer boyfriend (and her mother) and starts selling fake acid. Flaca prints tiny cartoon pictures on regular paper; the kids at her school claim it works.

The scheme goes smoothly until one student attempts suicide after taking a hit of her fake drug, and it's all traced back to the source.

Mei Chang: Organized Crime

Brought to the U.S. as an acne-prone young woman to marry a man who, after no more than a few seconds, rejects her with a sprinkling of insults, Chang offers to instead work in her brother's shop. As it turns out, her brother sells Chinese groceries and items -- bear bile, for one -- that are banned in the U.S. Chang gets into the business herself when her brother suggests her comings and goings wouldn't be noticed because her looks make her practically "invisible," and later saves the life of one of her brother's partners in a deal gone wrong. In return, Chang asks that he take revenge on the prospective husband who snubbed her -- by cutting out the man's gallbladder.

Norma Romano: Murder

Norma is drawn into a '60s cult, whose leader vaguely promises his followers a "transformation." It's revealed that she's not mute -- she just has a terrible stutter, and prefers not to speak. The leader doesn't make her. Norma idolizes the leader, with whom she eventually exchanges vows in a ceremony where many other women also become his "wives."

She follows him around even when the rest of his followers have left (or, perhaps, when the cult is broken up by authorities). The leader becomes increasingly abusive, at one point calling Norma a "slave" with no agency of her own. In response, she pushes him off a high cliff.

Leanne Taylor: [Drug-Related Charges]

Surprise! Leanne was raised Amish! In a flashback, we see her as a teenager sitting around a campfire with friends -- all in contemporary clothing on Rumspringa -- and learn she deals drugs. ("Peanut butter cups and meth. It's like Red Vines and Dr. Pepper.") Some time later, Leanne changes into her handmade dress and goes home, where her mother looks surprised and grateful to see her. She's soon baptized into the Amish community and explains how happy she is to have chosen the Amish over the modern world.

But when the FBI finds evidence linking her to the meth ring and recruits her help in exchange for amnesty, the other formerly Amish kids are sent to jail -- and their parents aren't pleased. Leanne is shunned. After learning how difficult her actions have made life for her parents, she leaves home for good.

Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett: [Attempted Murder]

We've already seen how Pennsatucky landed in prison, but Season 3 gave us another, somehow more depressing, look into her personal life. As a girl, Pennsatucky receives terrible advice about sex from her mother. ("Best thing is to go on and let them do their business, baby.") Consequently, the teenage Pennsatucky lets boys have sex with her in exchange for six-packs of soda and other small favors -- until she meets a nice guy. He takes her on dates, shows her how to enjoy sex for herself, and then his family moves away. At a party not 10 minutes after the couple has said their goodbyes, Pennsatucky is raped.

Aleida Diaz: [Drug-Related Charges]

Again, we already know that Aleida's prison sentence stems from her participation in a drug ring, but a Season 3 flashback gives us even more insight into her relationship with her daughter Daya.

One summer, Aleida sends Daya to sleep-away camp despite a neighbor's cautions -- camps could put children in contact with government agencies empowered to stick them in the foster care system. Like any kid, Daya isn't jazzed about being dropped off far from home, prompting Aleida to pull out some tough love (and run back to her car to cry). One month later, however, she picks up her daughter and discovers counselors and other campers have helped Daya develop her talent for arts and crafts. Cruelly, Aleida throws away Daya's artwork from camp after the pair return home, seemingly jealous of the bonds her daughter made with other women.

"Orange Is the New Black" Season 4 premieres in its entirety on Netflix at midnight on Friday, June 17.