C.O. Artesian McCullough (portrayed by Emily Tarver) is a new guard hired in the MCC’s veteran hiring initiative. The only female guard currently on payroll at Litchfield, she, much like C.O. Susan Fischer, appears to regard the women of Litchfield as people, unlike her colleagues.
She is regularly assigned to watch Maritza Ramos in the prison van, where she admits to feeling out-of-place with the guys with whom she shares the on-campus housing, so it is only reasonable that she feels more comfortable with Maritza, a woman, even though she is someone whom should be treated as a subordinate.
This camaraderie poses issues for Maritza, however, when she realizes that she’s not as easy to manipulate as a male guard. During the pad/tampon shortage at medical, Maritza mentions how uncomfortable she is, and to her surprise McCullough offers her one of her own tampons–a rather kind gesture, considering that women who should sympathize more with Maritza refuse to lend her some. McCullough’s ignorance to Maritza’s capabilities allows her to treat her more like a friend than a subordinate, and she even asks Maritza to teach her how to do her makeup like her.
McCullough’s relative inactivity when compared to the other guards makes her seem as though she is useless, but her veteran status suggests that she’s incredibly strong and can cause just as much damage as any of the other guards, but it’s surprising when she does nothing in response to Humphrey‘s suspected foul play with Maritza, which reminds us that she’s not entirely void of guilt.
When it comes to light that Joe Caputo has no idea who the murdered guard is–and that the vetting process was poor at best–McCullough is appalled, realizing that Litchfield is in far worse shape than she might have originally thought.
Unfortunately, she experiences just how bad Litchfield is first-hand when she and Humphrey are forced to the ground and held at gunpoint by Daya Diaz.
Literary Litchfield 