Introduction to Eddy Zheng

Abstract

In 1986, when Eddy Zheng was sixteen years old, he and two of his friends broke into the home of a Chinese immigrant family in San Francisco, hoping to find a safe filled with money and other valuable items.' When there was no safe to be found, their ill-advised armed home invasion quickly developed into a six-hour debacle involving hostage2 taking, kidnapping, and extortion. The criminal escapade finally ended when the police pulled over Zheng and one of his cohorts for driving without their headlights on. Zheng, who was tried as an adult, eventually pleaded guilty to robbery, kidnapping, and possession of a firearm.' He was sentenced to seven years to life with the possibility of parole for his involvement. Zheng was released in 2007 after serving nineteen years of his life sentence in state prison and nearly two years in the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement He now works as a project coordinator for the Community Response Network for Asian Pacific Islanders (CRN-API) 4 at the Community Youth Center of San Francisco. In his day-to-day work, Zheng strives to prevent youth from making the same mistakes he did as a teenager. He believes this goal requires a coordinated effort among community based organizations, parents, schools, and local law enforcement to combat the underlying struggles that immigrant youth often face-living simultaneously in two cultures, navigating the public school system, and struggling to find a sense of belonging and camaraderie. Zheng's story can best be described as one of redemption and transformation. It is often said that prison changes a person, and Zheng is a testament to that fact-but not in the way one might think. Although prison is, more often than not, a place where despair overwhelms hope, Zheng has