Early on in “Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train,” a sadistic corrections officer in Rikers Island prison compares himself to a cowboy in charge of cattle earmarked for the slaughterhouse. His grim comment sums up the central metaphor of this 2000 drama by Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Adly Guirgis, which examines the dehumanization inherent in our criminal justice system, particularly for Latino and Black men. As directed by Esteban Andres Cruz at City Lit Theater, the play’s livestock imagery runs deep, from the piteous to the disgusting to the macabre.

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