A strange thing happens to many young people who have put each other down whenever they got serious about school -- they get a hankering for books. Shahim Abdul el-Arkbark writes about the new appeal of reading, writing, thinking when you're behind bars. Shahim, 16 years old, is currently incarcerated in the California Youth Authority facility near Stockton, Calif. This article was written for YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about Bay Area youth produced by Pacific News Service.

"Aw man, you's a punk! Always reading and going to school like a little sucka."

Studious kids who reside in impoverished, gang-infested areas often face denigration and rejection from peers who have lost hope, spirit and confidence, and want everyone else to do the same. I've faced this kind of rejection but I've also been on the other side of it, discouraging people my age from reading, writing or doing anything educational. Doing this made me feel good because all the older "cats" did the same thing.

My generation has exceeded those before us in the art of turning schoolboys into hardened criminals. But many of these same criminals who skipped school and encouraged others to do so while free become bookworms once they are incarcerated. Why do these gang bangers, dope dealers, woman bashers and drive-by shooters become so interested in books and school once confined behind barbed wire?

The government may take credit for our "rehabilitation," but those who have been through it know better. "Line up! Shut up!" is the favorite expression of those who are called "peace officers" but who are thought of as slave drivers by many wards. But one important difference between modern-day inmates and the slaves of the past is that as inmates, we have the right to read, write and educate ourselves -- activities which might have gotten a slave beaten or killed. Those of us who are aware of this distinction understand that knowledge is freedom, and become even hungrier for education. Staff misconduct becomes a fuse -- a fuse that sets ablaze a passion for knowledge that may never have been ignited before.

Another thing that happens in jail is that the same people who ridiculed others for seeking knowledge on the outside now find themselves degraded and neglected in part because they failed to pursue an education which could help them find a real job in society. They begin to realize that it's dangerous not to have the ability to read or write comprehensibly. I and many others have turned to education because we are tired of being stepped on.

Discerning the perniciousness of a lack of education, many inmates desist in their denigration of those who seek solace or a way out through the contents of precious books. They begin to peruse books themselves, to write vigorously, and to listen attentively to all those who speak with wisdom. Reading becomes mandatory, as essential as food, in the lives of those who once thought education anathema. The hardened criminals society tried to get rid of are now thinking positively and acting positively, and they are praised by their peers for such conduct.

Those who educate themselves are labeled "trouble makers" by staff, however, because they speak out. I myself had to be continuously ministered to by some of these "trouble makers" before I picked up a book by my own desire. Those who ministered to me were Black Muslims, and they used my glorious history to ignite the torch within me, which had so much unused fuel in it. It was history that made me want to educate myself further, but another brother may use science, anthropology, math, etc.

Because of the similarities they perceive between being a slave in 1796 and being a ward in 1996, incarcerated folks are likely to use their education to speak out against America's jail system. They will do this with anger, just like they started to educate themselves with anger. That anger is not negative in itself. It only becomes so if they are denied the opportunity to speak, write, organize, influence and protest.

The big question is what will happen when they are back in society, back among people who neglect, belittle and discourage education. Some will persistently carry on, and others will be overtaken by negativity. The difference may come down to opportunity. Those who find a way to use their education in society will seize it. Those who don't will most likely be back in jail for the same offense, and America will have another well-educated, heartless criminal.