Shailene Woodley Compares Her Jail Stint to Being ‘a Caged Animal’

“They were looking for drugs in my ass,” “Divergent” actress recalls of last year’s arrest

Shailene Woodley Allegiant
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Perhaps if Shailene Woodley ever gets her congressional campaign off the ground, she can make prison reform a prominent plank in her platform.

“Divergent” actress Woodley opened up about her arrest last year after protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, likening her time behind bars to being “a caged animal.”

‘I was strip-searched. Like get naked, turn over, spread your butt cheeks, bend over. They were looking for drugs in my ass,” Woodley told Marie Claire UK in an interview published Friday.

‘When you’re in a jail cell and they shut that door, you realize no one can save you. If there’s a fire and they decide not to open the door, you’ll die. You are a caged animal,” the actress added.

Woodley was arrested and charged with criminal trespassing and engaging in a riot in October during a protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.

In March, the actress reached a plea deal, agreeing to plead guilty to disorderly conduct, a class B misdemeanor. In exchange, she will receive one year deferred imposition of sentence and one year of unsupervised probation.

At the protest, Woodley posted video of the protest, reporting that she saw law-enforcement officers “with semi-automatic weapons.”

“It’s really actually quite hilarious to me. How can you deny clean water to so many people who are standing up and saying this is what they want? It’s just mind-blowing,” the actress said in the video.

Apparently, what she experienced shortly afterward wasn’t quite so hilarious.

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