The penalty for laughing in a courtroom
The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.
Since 1957, black people have
Since 1957, black people have experienced double-digit unemployment - in good times and bad times. Look at the population of African Americans in prison. They represent more than half the population of prisoners in the country, 55 percent of those on death row.
The only effect of public punishment is
The only effect of public punishment is to show the rabble how bravely it can be borne; and that every one who hath lost a toe-nail hath suffered worse.
Crimes generally punish themselves.
Crimes generally punish themselves.
It is the spirit and not the form of law
It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.
A Sunday school is a prison in which
A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.
Society has used the juvenile courts to
Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.
Steal goods and you’ll go to prison,
Steal goods and you’ll go to prison, steal lands and you are a king.
I know how men in exile feed on dreams
I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
It was only when I lay there on the
It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not between states nor between social classes nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts. And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life.
If punishment reaches not the mind and
If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.
He was a first-time nonviolent possible
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.
It is better that ten guilty persons
It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.
Some laws of state aimed at curbing
Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.
A country is in a bad state, which is
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.
Man is condemned to be free.
Man is condemned to be free.
So justice while she winks at crimes,
So justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.
Overlook our deeds, since you know that
Overlook our deeds, since you know that crime was absent from our inclination.
I submit that an individual who breaks a
I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
One crime is everything; two nothing.
One crime is everything; two nothing.
A man who has no excuse for a crime, is
A man who has no excuse for a crime, is indeed defenseless!
We shall not yield to violence. We shall
We shall not yield to violence. We shall not be deprived of union freedoms. We shall never agree with sending people to prison for their convictions.
No obligation to justice does force a
No obligation to justice does force a man to be cruel, or to use the sharpest sentence.
The solution to our drug problem is not
The solution to our drug problem is not in incarceration.
One of the problems that the marijuana
One of the problems that the marijuana reform movement consistently faces is that everyone wants to talk about what marijuana does, but no one ever wants to look at what marijuana prohibition does. Marijuana never kicks down your door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows. Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.
