The prison system, inherently unjust and inhumane   Is the ultimate expression of injustice   and inhumanity in the society at large.   Those of us on the outside do not like   to think of wardens and guards as our surrogates, yet they are.   And they are intimately locked in a deadly embrace   with their human captives behind prison walls.   By extension, so are we.   The terrible double meaning is thus imparted   to the original question of human ethics   "Am I my brother's keeper?"      The second of February, 1980   Began three days of misery   A scene of retaliation   Epitomizing violence, horror, and vindication   Thieves, murderers, and rapists   Inundated their prison like homicidal sadists   Guards and convicts alike would pay the price   To them the electric chair would look like paradise   Only degradation, torture, and cremation would suffice      A sea of agony rolled in like the coming of the tide   The more fortunate escaped the insanity through suicide   The screams of the dying would haunt the living to the grave   Survivors of the riot relive the nightmare every day   The last act of defiance      With a never-ending appetite   Barbiturates set them off like dynamite   Eradicating informants   Acetylene torches dealt the punishment   Melted from skin to bone   The fire silenced their screams to moans   Smoke filled the air from bodies set aflame   Begging for mercy, but their words were spoken in vain   They weren't allowed to perish until they cherished all the pain      Guards they had taken hostage   Were to blame for pushing them over the edge   Their brutality would be their demise   Like sharks in a frenzy they lashed out at their prize   When the madness had ended   The gore was too intense to be comprehended   No one explained the real reason why   For cruelty of a few, so many should die   They knew of the flaws, but still insist the cause was justified