Quotes

How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong.

Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.

In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.

Faults of the head are punished in this world, those of the heart in another; but as most of our vices are compound, so also is their punishment.

The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.

Whatever you think of de Sade, he was a complex figure and we should not look for easy answers with him. He was, strangely perhaps, against the death penalty, and he was never put in prison for murders or anything like that.

A just chastisement may benefit a man, though it seldom does; but an unjust one changes all his blood to gall.

One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.

He had drawn many a thousand of these rations in prisons and camps, and though he'd never had an opportunity to weight them on scales, and although, being a man of timid nature, he knew no way of standing up for his rights, he, like every other prisoner, had discovered long ago that honest weight was never to be found in the bread-cutting. There was short weight in every ration. The only point was how short. So every day you took a look to soothe your soul - today, maybe, they haven't snitched any.

Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.

To seek the redress of grievances by going to law, is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble bush.

No man should be judge in his own case.

You utter a vow, or forge a signature, and you may find yourself bound for life to a monastery, a woman, or prison.

The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.

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.

Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation.

A man who has no excuse for a crime, is indeed defenseless!

If you share the crime of your friend, you make it your own.

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.

As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.

Well, I don't think prisons are the answer to everything, obviously.

Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.

It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.

Prison makes you a better judge of character. You pick up on people much faster.

I just remember that disturbing feeling of walking into that prison, the complete loss of privacy, the complete loss of stimulation, dignity.