"Innocent In Jail" by John Kaniecki

When I was an outpatient after a hospitalization I made friends with a man named Jeff. Jeff had a house in the affluent town next to mine. Needless to say, with Jeff being in the same day program with me, he wasn’t functioning very well. He too was suffering from psychological problems.

So as the true story goes Jeff didn’t cut his grass. There was an ordinance in town about the height of the grass. Unfortunately for Jeff his grass had grown too high and he was given a citation. Jeff appeared before a judge and he was thrown into county jail.

Now let me stop the story right here. I believe just based on economics alone that the cost of the judge and supporting cast at the courthouse for the case was far more than what it would cost to have somebody cut the grass. Why couldn’t the town just do the neighborly thing and cut Jeff’s grass? I mean he was going through a very difficult time in life and a helping hand would have been much appreciated.

So Jeff went to county jail and stayed in a massive overcrowded dormitory style room. Once more the state failed Jeff as he wasn’t given his psychiatric medication while in jail. Thus Jeff went back to the psychiatric hospital as a result.

I guess the moral of the story could be to make sure you cut your grass. All in all Jeff was much better off than millions of others in this country who are incarcerated. There is no double standard in the United States. The truth is that the standard is multi tiered.

If you are poor and caught with drugs you go to jail. If you are middle class and get caught with the same drugs you will go to rehab. If you are rich and get caught with drugs you will go to a very nice rehab. Rich people can and have killed and gotten away with it.

You want to see the discrepancy and inequality in our society you just examine the police force. In the poor communities the community fears the police. In the rich community the police fear the community. Positions and connections mean everything.

The motivation for the incarceration of millions of young African American males is to enrich others. The victims of the unjust judicial systems are forced to work with scant wages which amount to almost nothing. The privatization of prisons has made jail a business for profit. Instead of working for rehabilitation of the inmates the goal is to prolong the stay as there is more money to be made.

Prison is not about guilt or innocence rather it is about making money. That is why the United States has more people in jail than any other nation, including Russia and China which both have a greater population. America likes to call itself the land of the free, but that is a lie. 

Innocent In Jail

by John Kaniecki

I know every crack on the ceiling

I ain't just feeling blue

I am the ocean

I am the sea

I am a man

Longing to be free

The system ain't blind

It was meant to bind

Slavery

Political oppression

That is the lesson

That the darker your skin

The greater your sin

And if you don't wanna serve the man

And you ain't hip to the plan

Then damn

Your soul

They'll prove whose in control

See the country's justice system fail

A common tale

Innocent in jail

“Poet To The Poor, Poems Of Hope For The Bottom One Percent” is a book of poetry written  for the common man. It focuses on historical figures and everyday people from my life. Thrown in is a bunch of beautiful poetry. The majority of the poems are rhyming poems. “Poet To The Poor” communicates and articulates a clear message.

Check Out Poet To The Poor