Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.
A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that's unlocked and opens inwards, as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.
Vices are not crimes.
He who profits by a crime commits it.
Trial by jury itself, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, shall be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare.
No obligation to justice does force a man to be cruel, or to use the sharpest sentence.
Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, Can be retentive to the strength of spirit; But life, being weary of these worldly bars, Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.
The severest justice may not always be the best policy.
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.
To be at peace in crime! Ah, who can thus flatter himself.
Self is the only prison that can bind the soul.
Every instance of a man's suffering the penalty of the law is an instance of the failure of that penalty in effecting its purpose, which is to deter.
I can tell you this on a stack of Bibles: prisons are archaic, brutal, unregenerative, overcrowded hell holes where the inmates are treated like animals with absolutely not one humane thought given to what they are going to do once they are released. You're an animal in a cage and you're treated like one.
The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.
He was a first-time nonviolent possible offender, ... And under the mandatory minimums, he was put in prison for 15 years. Not only does the punishment not fit the crime, but the mandatory minimums don't give judges any discretion to look at the background of the case, to read into the specifics of the case. I don't know a judge who really is in favor of the mandatory minimums.
No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking…is freedom.
Fast closed with double grills And triple gates–the cell To wicked souls is hell; But to a mind that's innocent 'Tis only iron, wood and stone.
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
I never told a victim story about my imprisonment. Instead, I told a transformation story - about how prison changed my outlook, about how I saw that communication, truth, and trust are at the heart of power.
One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.
