Quotes

On average, drug prisoners spend more time in federal prison than rapists, who often get out on early release because of the overcrowding in prison caused by the Drug War.

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.

If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst!

I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.

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

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.

Self is the only prison that can bind the soul.

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

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 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.

A sick person is a prisoner.

They were being driven to a prison, through no fault of their own, in all probability for life. In comparison, how much easier it would be to walk to the gallows than to this tomb of living horrors!

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.

It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.

Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.

Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.

How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong.

Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.

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

On a planet that increasingly resembles one huge Maximum Security prison, the only intelligent choice is to plan a jail break.

There is no greater punishment of wickedness that that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.

A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.

To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.

Pardon is the virtue of victory.