Mandatory Time Lyrics

They got me in for murder
Back in nineteen eighty three
Locked me in this jail cell
And they threw away the key

What I have done is what I've done
There's no one else I blame
But what's he doin' here'
What he did just weren't the same

They say that he sold some reefer
To some undercover kid at school
And the cops they set him up big time
And they played him for a fool

He's just an average kid with good grades
He played football and he liked to swim
So what's he doin' here?
This ain't no place for him

Now I remember the prohibition days
And I seen how all that went
When a bootleg runner's fortune
Could make you a senator or a president

But this kid he ain't no Al Capone
His ambitions never aimed that low
So what's he doin' here?
He's just a young kid who didn't know They sentenced him to ten years
Ten years for this petty crime
The judge he said, "I'm sorry son,
But it's the mandatory time."

There's murderers who walk in five
There's rapists back out in two
So what's he doin' here?
He just did what any kid might do

There's billionaire drug dealers
From New York down to Panama
Who pay for their protection
And who mock the rule of law

And you know some of them are killers
Just as hardcore as any con
So what's he doin' here?
What is justice balanced on?

My sentence is still on appeal
But I'll probably wind up in the chair
I ain't askin' for forgiveness
I'll take my punishment as fair

But to see a kid so young and innocent
In this God-forsaken house of pain
O what's he doin' here?
Can someone please explain?

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