By Bryant Arroyo
From PHN Issue 55, Winter 2024
America! America!
Land of the free, a society filled with justice and equality.
This is a clear example of hypocrisy,
unless they forgot to include me,
and millions of others kept in captivity.
Confined behind tall walls and razor wires,
with the nation of prisoners constantly rising higher.
Countless amounts will never be released,
except in a body bag once deceased.
Most inmates have done their wrong,
but guidelines are designed to hold prisoners much too long.
Prisons in America have become the No. 1 prison industry!
Where men and women are stocked as commodity,
and forced to work for a paltry sum under servitude for free.
Refusal in being without pay and thrown into the hole.
Along with a definite denial of parole.
Since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation,
minorities have been swallowed by incarceration.
It’s easy to see the similarities between prison life and slavery.
Inside these walls, phone rates and commissaries are still high.
Because financial support comes from Securus, Global Tel Link, Aramark food service and Smart Communications too.
As far as these corporate raiders are concerned, that’s just a few!
Inmates are forced to make prisoner’s clothes, bed linens, bras, panties/boxers, Tshirts, socks,
boots, hats, and coats too.
It’s a shame many tax-paying citizens don’t know.
We are in the era of the new Jim Crow.
There’s no justice or equality.
America was built through slavery.
Don’t take my word for it, study your history.
Racist lawmakers and politicians make decisions,
causing Blacks, Latinx, and poor whites to fill prisons.
Outsiders believe we’re being rehabilitated.
But being caged only generates hatred.
The majority of defendants are victimized and doomed
way before entering the courtroom.
The vocabulary and legal terminology used
leaves most inmates dazed and confused.
And often the attorney who’s allegedly protecting your constitutional rights is secretly drinking
martinis with the DAs and judges at night.
Quick to offer some type of plea deal,
or make you wait many years for an appeal.
Court officials share a bond, and we are not a part.
Stacking the odds against you from the start.
Just like slave masters buying and selling slaves,
working them till they’re dead in their graves.
So, at times, it seriously baffles me.
Why is America called “THE LAND OF THE FREE”?
Especially when the United States of America is warehousing the largest nation of prisoners in this country!