Within the jail, there is a hierarchical structure not unlike the one in the society outside the jail. Even though everyone there is imprisoned, the prisoners place certain crimes above or below others. For example, the new prisoner is a child molester who can't remember whether he committed the crime for which he is imprisoned—but he knows he has molested children before. This is a crime disturbing enough that a council of prisoners meets to determine his fate. As in a normal courtroom, they argue and determine whether or not he meets the standards that they've set to be punished. It's their own structured world that they've created within the prison.

The American justice system is built on a series of principles like a fair trial. When the prisoners find out that the system is likely going to let the child molester go free, they realize that he won't be punished despite the fact that he is a child molester. Justice seems like it would demand an admitted child molester stay in prison segregated from the rest of the world and vulnerable children. The requirements of the American justice system won't keep Clark in prison. That doesn't sit well with the inmates. To them, that doesn't create justice or safety for the people in the world. They believe he is bad enough that true justice is killing him so that he can't hurt anyone else.

The inmates see Clark as a monster; only Juan believes that he is human and perhaps should not be killed for being a child molester. At one point, Clark says that Juan is the only human being he's met. Juan says that he doesn't know whether it makes him human to let Clark go back into society; he also doesn't know if it makes him human to be the person who decides Clark should die. The morality of humanity is a major theme in the play as Juan tries to come to a decision and a better understanding of what the right thing to do about Clark is.