Prisoners and Captives

Abstract

Here is what was at first “The Prison Issue,” but what became this issue entitled “Prisoners and Captives.” It’s about us, all of us, of course. For it does not think one-dimensionally about imprisonment, since captivity is captivity and it takes a variety of forms, often simultaneously. On this very note, speaking of George Jackson’s murder on August 21, 1971, Bob Dylan once sang:

Sometimes I think this whole world
Is one big prison yard
Some of us are prisoners
The rest of us are guards
Lord, Lord
They cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord
They laid him in the ground.