Quotes

The number of laws is constantly growing in all countries and, owing to this, what is called crime is very often not a crime at all, for it contains no element of violence or harm.

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.

The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.

In prisons, those things withheld from and denied to the prisoner become precisely what he wants most of all.

They're not supposed to show prison films in prison. Especially ones that are about escaping.

The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.

The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.

They took away my money, my family, and my security. Why couldn't they destroy my ideas? We will question them in court tomorrow as we trigger The Revolution of all revolutions!

Show me the prison, Show me the jail, Show me the prisoner whose life has gone stale. And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why And there, but for fortune, go you or I.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

Let us remember that justice must be observed even to the lowest.

When you are younger you get blamed for crimes you never committed and when you're older you begin to get credit for virtues you never possessed. It evens itself out.

The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.

Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.

The worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door.

In prison, you get the chance to see who really loves you.

By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere.

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.

What is crime amongst the multitude, is only vice among the few.

Organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars a year. This is quite a profitable sum, especially when one considers that the Mafia spends very little for office supplies.

I don't like being famous - it is like a prison. And driving for Ferrari would make it far worse.

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.

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.

The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime can be prevented, which is almost as dubious as the notion that poverty can be prevented.