This, too, was intentional. And as the cat with no name is carried by a volunteer past the chain-link cages housing loud dogs, it’s an experience not unlike Naz’s when he’s first taken into Rikers by a corrections officer.
The Cat
TheNightOfHBO
898

I am sure this was intentional as well, and this further supports my gripe with the series as a whole. The vast majority of those in prison in the series are Black, but we are not meant to feel like these are innocent people or to feel like the system has damaged these people in the way that Naz has been damaged. For the writers, the Black people are where they are supposed to be, and are harmful to the innocence of Naz, who “shouldn’t be there.” Naz is different. Naz is innocent. Naz is not black.