Life Without Parole

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Life without parole: Living and Dying in Prison Today I. Intro I must first start by say, when reading Life without Parole, I could not help but to compare the book to Picking Cotton. Their overall tones and perspectives on the prison system were quite different. But, regardless, they both brought awareness to abuse and violence within the prison system, as well as the criminal justice system needing extreme change. I believe because of their novelistic writing style, it made it easier for us to understand the brutality of what happens behind bars. Life without Parole is not just a simple textbook explanation, showing that corrections officers are abusive. It goes into gruesome detail about how it can be so awful behind bars that people begin to mutilate themselves commit suicide. II. Victor Hassine &Ronald Cotton The question of whether Victor Hassine was arrogant (putting himself on a pedestal) was raised in our class discussion. I do not think he put himself on a pedestal. I feel that Victor’s reaction to being incarcerated was quite normal. As Alyssa said in class “It’s a natural response to be confused. He had never been in prison and that’s how people would react if they have never been to prison.” Additionally, as Karissa pointed out, how would he be putting himself on a pedestal if he brought awareness to all of his mistakes in the book? Moreover, I think if he put himself on a pedestal, he would not have committed suicide in the long run. I believe Hassine’s response was different because he was educated in law. I am not sure if he had a juvenile delinquent past when he was younger (like Ronald Cotton), but his education of law definitely had an impact on his reaction. Instead of him being angry, revengeful, and hostile; he wanted to be alone (liked being in the hole), absorb everything, and start writing letters to change the horrible prison
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