'Caging The Young'

'Caging The Young' by Mumia Abu-JamalRecorded 10-21-12  CAGING THE YOUNG[col. writ.] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal Sometimes, I’m shocked by the youth of some of the young men around me.I’ve met guys who have never heard of Chuck D., Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix or Bob Marley.  When I mention names like these, I can tell by their blank stares that they have absolutely no idea who these great musicians are – or were.It’s impossible to talk jazz with them – that’s like rapping to them about lutes played by ancient Greeks.That’s a side of the prison industrial complex that most people - even activists – don’t see.Children in prison – so young that they don’t shave – serving decades in prison – with decades to go!Most are the human flotsam and jetsam of the drug wars, the illegitimate economy that flows in too many urban communities, and the raging fury that sparked the imprisonment boom that was – and is –America’s rural jobs program. Enemies of the State at birth, given an abominable, punitive,