[Intro]

JNow.org

Justice Now

Yeah... listen, listen

[Prologue]

Freedom is breathing the fresh air

And the feeling of rain on the face

As she came in this place

Getting shamed and disgraced

The plaintiffs of state

Made sure she caught the blame in the case

Another number without a name or a face

2 million filling our prisons, now they claim that we're safe?

[Verse 1]

Prison bars start looking like bar codes

Freedom was sold, case closed, by an arm in a dark robe

Banging a gavel to send you travelin' carloads

Down gravel on stark roads, like cargo

To a place where the heart grows cold

You hear another prison door slam shut

By hard-nosed politicians

Making commission off of starved souls in prison

Monopolizing cash flow

Go directly to jail and do not pass 'Go'

More bound to get locked down

Than a gown, cap, or tassel

Profiled the suspect, handcuffed and shackled

The most attacked and hassled

By the cops in the hood

Throw you on the top of the hood

Then in the back with a lasso

The assholes gotta fill their quota of stocked goods

Or might get the axe, like chopped wood

It's not looking good

When the 5-0, the P.O.s, the D.A.s, the C.O.s

Living large with the CEOs – they business partners

[Chorus 1]

Come out with your hands up

Put us in handcuffs

We get locked

You hear another prison door slam shut

Get up

The door to opportunity closes

As it grows, the net profit it grosses

Come out with your hands up

Put us in handcuffs

We got locked

You hear another prison door slam shut

Get up

The door to opportunity closes

And then another prison door slams shut

Get up

[Verse 2]

He used to beat her mercilessly

But they wasn't coming around when she called the Emergency

They said the state couldn't intercede

Until she made him bleed

Then they charge her in the first degree

Another door to opportunity closes

She discloses that she had a felony charge

On an application for a job

Instant termination – what you gonna do to survive?

There's no public assistance when you've got a drug conviction

Listen, you'll hear another prison door slam shut

Mandatory minimums

Can't ignore these are women

Living in unsanitary conditions

With strip searches

By male guards on cell blocks

Don't be shell-shocked

When I spit verses

The door to opportunity closes

When mothers lose custody

And nothing's for free

In the so-called Home of the Brave

Where we get enslaved if we don't behave

[Chorus 1]

So, come out with your hands up

Put us in handcuffs

We get locked

You hear another prison door slam shut

Get up

The door to opportunity closes

As it grows, the net profit it grosses

Come out with the hands up

Put us in handcuffs

We got locked

You hear another prison door slam shut

Get up

The door to opportunity closes

[Verse 3]

One question: who's the enemy? The women we define as criminals?

Corporate crimes get a slap on the wrist and the fine is political

Say farewell to welfare

No one else hears, it falls upon deaf ears

Wage is minimal

Get dimed and nickeled too

The war on the poor, drugs, and terrorism is a war on the

Democracy we never had; just look at Florida

Elections get obtained then extorted

Foreigners detained and deported over the border

Facts distorted, putting people in a cage

Judge 'em with illegal ways

Lethal injection's modern-day lynching, ain't it a shame?

We ain't taking preventative measures

Like building better schools or starting a needle exchange

When you locking people up, then you imprison yourself

More than a prisoner who lives in a cell

Your fear of losing your false sense of security and material wealth

Got you a life sentence to a living hell

We tipping the scales

[Chorus 2]

And then you hear a prison door open (Open!)

We kicking down the door, now it's broken (Broken!)

We fighting for the freedom and hoping (Hoping!)

Say it loud, just repeat after me, and say

No More Prisons! (No More Prisons!)

I said, No More Prisons! (No More Prisons!)

Yeah! Justice Now, ya'll

Justice Now

Listen... listen... listen... yeah

[Bridge]

So, the 13th Amendment

Outlaws slavery

With the exception

Of those convincted of committing a crime

Which means that

The prison system

Is a continuation of the system of slavery

So just like slavery was abolished

Prisons need to be abolished

We need to find real solutions

To the problems that our communities face

Not just in the States, all over the world, ya'll

[Outro]

It's the Platinum Pied Pipers

Invincible

JNow.org

The We That Sets Us Free

Building A World Without Prisons