Ribhu Singh Week 8 Two Rivers New Vietnamese

This weeks reading on the plight and indignation experienced by prisoners while serving their sentences really attuned me to the plight of California's prisoners regardless of race. I personally find it revolting that such dichotomies exist in the treatment of prisoners relative to their occupation. The cognitive dissonance experienced by inmates in prison occupations in regards to their role as prisoners assisting their captors and the role of legitimacy and its implications on the psyche of former gang related prisoners makes me lament the unfortunate circumstances that many of these prisoners have found themselves. Equally as disconcerting is the travesty of justice imposed upon an individual acting in self defense against a rival gang member to be sentenced to life in prison. Such development make me lament the state of the criminal justice system and the inequalities and perversion of justices that it administrates. For the son of Vietnamese immigrants fleeing prosecution to find himself facing incarceration for defending himself against murder is to me the most remarkable piece of illogic. The ending paragraph that juxtaposes the experiences of gang violence vs. that of military violence to me reveals the inherent subjectivity of violence especially its acceptability when it is state sponsored. All that is left to be asked in a situation like this is: what can be done?