hmmmm, well, i agree that Joan is one of the best characters in the shows history, and i havent finished yet, but what people dont notice - especially in the beginning is that she was quite nice.... Steve Faulkner and her got along quite well to begin with - so maybe she just prefered the company of men, didnt she and Len murphy get along until he realised she was a lesbian? before she'd finished her first shift either meg or coleen was saying to the Erica about how butch joan appeared - to which Erica replied that joans personal life is not sometime we can judge (paraphrased but you get the jist) so before she'd done ANYTHING wrong both the staff and the prisoners were talking maliciously about her... and she's probably dealt with that everywhere.
then when she was a bit bad she only hurt people who crossed her... she didnt want anything to do with drugs, she told nola so, and still bea was on her case, even tho they'd happily used other screws for trafficking goods before. she allowed them to gamble... made it easy in fact and only wanted a cut, but bea was adamant she'd put a stop to that too. i'm deliberately skipping past the "molestation of doreen" (she tried to lie to Joanie and was to be punished...and she was quite annoying)
yes, she wanted hannah simpson, but apart from stroking her leg, what trouble did she really cause there? she eventually got her transfered. she didnt SAY anything more to the prisoners than vera ever had. and yes, she was a good screw - STRAIGHT DOWN THE LINE - until prisoners killed her girlfriend, that'd make anyone a little pissed. she was cruel, but so was vera, so were colleen and jim fletcher at times and Janet conway (and Jock) and neil murray, and len murphy and david bridges and even meg doled out a few slaps and insultys along the way.... why does Joanie get blamed for everything? because she was THE lesbian of the 80s.... (her character probably didn't do too much favours for LGBT rights lol) because unlike Meg she didnt care what people thought of her? i'm not sure why, but it sure makes good television!
i think the character is great and i try to make sense of her behaviour here, probably not done too well, but hey ho...