July 12, 1997: We first meet Oswald State Correctional Facility's resident nun, Sister Pete
I never got around to watching Oz, as we didn't have HBO and I never quite got around to locating the DVDs. In fact, I had no idea there was a nun character on the show, as I didn't really equate nuns with prison sodomy. But there she is, Sister Peter Marie, played by Rita Moreno.
From what I can tell, Sister Pete came to her vocation later in life (she had a husband who was murdered, which gets worked into the plot at some point), and is more of the streetwise nun. She's also a psychiatrist, and provides therapy for prisoners, both in individual and group sessions. Part of her job calls for her to determine if inmates are allowed to have conjugal visits, so there's a nice layer of irony to her work.
She's also against the death penalty, though in at least two cases she argued for a prisoner's execution (once for a prisoner who was sick, the other for a guy who wanted to be stoned to death). Not surprisingly, she thinks about quitting the habit (you knew I was going to use that pun at some point this week), but sticks with it throughout the series.
Sister Pete is apparently based on Tom Fontana's older sister, a nun who has done volunteer work in prisons. Holidays must be interesting in the Fontana household.
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