While we have prisons it matters little which of us occupy the cells.
Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.
~James Bell
I wrote a million words in the first year, and I could never have done that outside of prison.
Any punishment that does not correct, that can merely rouse rebellion in whoever has to endure it, is a piece of gratuitous infamy which makes those who impose it more guilty in the eyes of humanity, good sense and reason, nay a hundred times more guilty than the victim on whom the punishment is inflicted.
I know not whether laws be right, or whether laws be wrong; All that we know who lie in gaol is that the wall is strong; And that each day is like a year, a year whose days are long.
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.
It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.
Prison makes you a better judge of character. You pick up on people much faster.
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger.
The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
Whatever is worthy to be loved for anything is worthy of preservation. A wise and dispassionate legislator, if any such should ever arise among men, will not condemn to death him who has done or is likely to do more service than injury to society. Blocks and gibbets are the nearest objects with legislators, and their business is never with hopes or with virtues.
The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.
We who live in prison, and in whose lives there is no event but sorrow, have to measure time by throbs of pain, and the record of bitter moments.
Forgiveness, that noblest of all self-denial, is a virtue which he alone who can practise in himself can willingly believe in another.
It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.
No man should be judge in his own case.
And while God had work for Paul, he found him friends both in court and prison. Let persecutors send saints to prison, God can provide a keeper for their turn.
Let us remember that justice must be observed even to the lowest.
