There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals.
Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.
Well does Heaven have care that no man secures happiness by crime.
There are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves; but it were much better to make such good provisions, by which every man might be put in a method how to live, and so to be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and dying for it.
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.
Prosecution I have managed to avoid; but I have been arrested, charged in a police court, have refused to be bound over, and thereupon have been unconditionally released - to my great regret; for I have always wanted to know what going to prison was like.
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 wrote a million words in the first year, and I could never have done that outside of prison.
As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.
To be at peace in crime! Ah, who can thus flatter himself.
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.
The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.
One crime has to be concealed by another.
There's no greater threat to our independence, to our cherished freedoms and personal liberties than the continual, relentless injection of these insidious poisons into our system. We must decide whether we cherish independence from drugs, without which there is no freedom.
No man should be judge in his own case.
Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.
A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.
He who profits by a crime commits it.
In prison, you get the chance to see who really loves you.
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.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.
Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
