In the Power of One, young Peekay finds himself training with a prison boxing squad. While he believes that he has the world's best boxing coach, Geel Piet, the officials in the prison think quite the opposite. Geel Piet was a African American prisoner who had been in jail more than he had been free in his life. Although this was true, he was a great boxing coach to Peekay, and taught Peekay many things. During his time in prison, Geel Piet was treated very badly; and was eventually murdered by a prison guard. This case may have been in England, but this happens in prisons around the world, even in the United States. Prison brutality is unfortunately common in prisons in the United States, which includes rapes and murders. In California, one inmate was made to work to contain a wildfire, and fell off a 150 feet cliff while working. Many prisoners in California are made to work to contain natural disasters, but is this fair? It is a dangerous job for a trained professional, let alone someone who isn't in that profession. In Florida, there is controversy over a prisoner's death, who was on death row for killing a prison guard while attempting to free a friend from prison. After the suspicious killing, nine prison guards were suspended with pay, waiting for the outcome of the investigation. While these cases are extreme, it may take many people back to the Power of One, when Geel Piet was murdered, because he was an African American prisoner. He didn't kill anyone, or hurt anyone in the prison, he was actually helping the prison boxing team to win, more than it had ever done before.
The racism found in this book, is incredibly sad, and seen many times in the prison. Geel Piet was ridiculed and beaten because of his race. Now, it seems like that in prisons throughout the United States a lot of prisoners are being treated poorly, regardless of their race. I believe that this is incredibly unfair to treat a person like that. The prisoner is being punished already by being in jail, serving out their sentence, why do they need to be beaten on top of that? The people who torture these criminals are no better than the criminal themselves. My opinion may be not be what everyone thinks, but to see people be hurt, while they are already being punished, is something that is hard to stand by.
