The worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door.
He who profits by a crime commits it.
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation.
Prison continues, on those who are entrusted to it, a work begun elsewhere, which the whole of society pursues on each individual through innumerable mechanisms of discipline.
Wherever any one is against his will, that is to him a prison.
Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger.
The worst prison is not of stone. It is of a throbbing heart, outraged by an infamous life.
No man survives when freedom fails. The best men rot in filthy jails, and those who cry 'appease, appease' are hanged by those they tried to please.
While crime is punished it yet increases.
Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.
It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
Whatever is worthy to be loved for anything is worthy of preservation. A wise and dispassionate legislator, if any such should ever arise among men, will not condemn to death him who has done or is likely to do more service than injury to society. Blocks and gibbets are the nearest objects with legislators, and their business is never with hopes or with virtues.
Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.
In jail a man has no personality. He is a minor disposal problem and a few entries on reports. Nobody cares who loves or hates him, what he looks like, what he did with his life. Nobody reacts to him unless he gives trouble. Nobody abuses him. All that is asked of him is that he go quietly to the right cell and remain quiet when he gets there. There is nothing to fight against, nothing to be mad at. The jailers are quiet men without animosity or sadism.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
And while God had work for Paul, he found him friends both in court and prison. Let persecutors send saints to prison, God can provide a keeper for their turn.
It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.
It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.
If two people fight on the street, whose fault is it? Who is the criminal? It is the government’s responsibility because the government has not educated the people to not make mistakes. The people have inadequate, incompetent education, so they make mistakes! It is such a fraud.
To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.
A country is in a bad state, which is governed only by laws; because a thousand things occur for which laws cannot provide, and where authority ought to interpose.
A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.
One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
