Down These Mean Streets

Despite being released from prison, Piri still must face outstanding warrants for robberies committed in the Bronx. Two police officers arrest him as he is released and Piri is driven to the Bronx by the officers. Along the way, they stop for a meal and Piri contemplates making a run for it and escaping out the back door, but he decides that it is better to take his chances facing the warrants. They drive through Piri’s old neighborhood in Harlem and though many things have changed, “the heart was still there. New faces and old hearts” (314).At the Bronx prison, he is cellmates with a young man who shot a cop and is scared about what sentence he will get. Piri says: “I felt I was looking at myself six years ago” (315). He tells the young man that everything will probably be alright. The night before his hearing, Piri prays to God, and with this act he “began to feel better inside, like God had become Pops and Moms to me” (317).