Experts and the educated elite have replaced what worked with what sounded good. Society was far more civilized before they took over our schools, prisons, welfare programs, police departments and courts. It's high time we ran these people out of our lives and went back to common sense.
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.
No crime has been without a precedent.
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.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.
Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrist? And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists? And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air? Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.
We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.
There is no greater punishment of wickedness that that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.
The severest justice may not always be the best policy.
I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice.
The best situation of all, and one frequently utilized, is for jails and prisons to allow volunteer ministers of all faiths to enter prisons and offer their services to the inmates who want them. That way, the religious needs of inmates are met but without government funds being spent.
I existed in a world that never is - the prison of the mind.
What is crime amongst the multitude, is only vice among the few.
Corporal punishment falls far more heavily than most weighty pecuniary penalty.
In prisons, those things withheld from and denied to the prisoner become precisely what he wants most of all.
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.
The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.
Justice renders to every one his due.
The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
Trial by jury itself, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, shall be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare.
Most people fancy themselves innocent of those crimes of which they cannot be convicted.
You stuff somebody into the American dream, and it becomes a prison.
