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Rotting On Remand Tab

by Billy Bragg


>From rousseaf@nil.IRO.UMontreal.CA (Francois Rousseau)

               Rotting On Remand
                (Billy Bragg)


I stood before the judge that day
                 
As he refused my bail

And I knew that I would spend my time
                   
Awaiting trial in jail
   
I said there is no justice
                          
As they led me out of the door
                                            
And the judge said, "This isn't a court of justice son
                    
This is a court of law".


They first sent me to Windsor
                      
And then to Stoke on Trent

In a holding cell in Liverpool
                         
Three days and nights I spent
     
My solicitor can't find me
                    
And my family don't know
                                
I keep telling them that I'm innocent
                                          
They just say, "Come on son, in you go."

                                  
I was picked up on suspicion of something I haven't done
                                       
Here I sit in 'F' wing waiting for my trial to come
                                               
It's a cruel unusual punishment that society demands
                                         
Innocent till proven guilty, rotting on remand

        

    
I ended up in this jail
              
Built in 18-82

When one man to one prison cell
                  
Was a Victorian value
      
Now three of us are squeezed in here
                         
And you can't escape the smell
                       
Of that bucket in the corner
                       
And we eat in here as well


They let me out of this cage
                    
To slop that bucket out

To get my food and bring it back
                          
And if I'm lucky, get a shower
  
Apart from one hours exercise
                        
I'm locked in here all day
                               
You don't turn criminals into citizens
                          
By treating them this way

                                    
Is the prize of law and order the stench of Wormwood Scrubs
           /    /                           
With judges quick to sentence sending more down from above
                                                
It's a cruel unusual punishment that society demands
                                        
Innocent till proven guilty, rotting on remand    G  D  A  D ...

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Francois Rousseau
Laboratoire Incognito (Computer Languages)
Universite de Montreal, Canada
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