Incarceration Nation

A couple million people
and many innocents
are doing time, and lots of time –
time and time again
What a waste of their potential
to make them waste away
Seems like justice never was just
in the American way

Involuntary labor
is slav’ry — that’s no lie
‘cause slavery wasn’t ended; it was only corporatized
Big business makes big profits
when people work for free
But the cost is 80 billion:
paid by you and me

The pipeline to the prisons
starts with kids in school
Locks ’em up like criminals for breaking minor rules
Moms, hold onto your babies,
if they are brown or black
‘cause the system’s rigged against ‘em:
you might not get them back

We love to punish people
and strip them of their worth
We’ve got the largest prison population on the earth
We keep filling up the prisons
just to watch them grow
We’re incarceration nation:
How low can we go?