Clark Davis
Davis is the catalyst driving the narrative. He is the newest inmate on this particular block which has a reputation for being relatively free of conflict. The mere arrival of Davis is enough to create conflict because his crime is the lowest of the low in prison hierarchy: child sexual abuse. Add in the fact that he is a good-looking white man surrounded by prisoners who are predominantly Puerto Rican or black and the wick is already lit before he even opens his mouth.
Juan
Juan is a Puerto Rican prisoner with whom an unlikely bond is developed by Davis. Juan is kind of the philosopher poet of the group and is put in an untenable position of trying to protect the child molester against immediate plans to eliminate him.
Longshoe
The nickname for Charlie Murphy, the only other white prisoner on the block. As a result of this shared attribute with Clark, Longshoe actually develops as the man with the most intense hatred toward the pedophile. The nickname is prison slang for an inmate who is handling confinement well because he’s got his act together. But things start fraying with the arrival of another white man who occupies the lowest rung of the prison social order.
Nett
Nett is the prison guard who proudly proclaims that his block has been conflict-free up to now and he expects things to remain that way despite the unexpected addition of an unlikely new tenant. Nett is not just a white figure of authority overseeing a majority of inmates made up of groups in the minority on the outside, but he’s of the old-school type of prison guard as well.
El Raheem
Juan might be the philosopher-poet and conscience of the block, but El Raheem is the self-appointed spiritual leader. He is a militant black who might easily be confused as a Muslim, but in fact seems to be the head of his own one-person religious organization that is nevertheless founded on the premise that the white man is the devil.
Cupcakes
As the nickname might suggest, Cupcakes is a young Puerto Rican good-looking enough to be targeted by inmates imprisoned from sexual opportunity far too long. Juan steps in to protect him from the dangers his youth and looks pose only for Cupcakes to fail to repay this favor when Juan needs it to protect Clark.
