“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”
― Nelson Mandela

in this country
poor people
who are drug addicts
don’t get treatment
they get prison
same with the mentally ill
i was in there with them
with my garden variety borderline personality disorder
i saw i know
i bear witness
our prison system
holds literally millions of crazies
because we refuse to deal with them in any other way
this is not a poem
this is a plea:
is this any way for a “great” nation to behave?