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.
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
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.
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.
The mellow sweetness of pumpkin pie off a prison spoon is something you will never forget.
Federal prison, if you get any of it, you're going to have to do 85% of it. And the reason why I called it that is because I had a friend who got sent to the federal joint and his whole... it wasn't about him being in jail. He cried about the 85%.
One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
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.
He who opens a school door, closes a prison.
The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.
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.
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.
Overlook our deeds, since you know that crime was absent from our inclination.
Justice is justice though it's always delayed and finally done only by mistake.
To seek the redress of grievances by going to law, is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble bush.
There is a point at which even justice does injury.
The only difference between me and my fellow actors is that I've spent more time in jail.
The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison walls.
Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.
Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.
Shyness is the prison of the heart.
Three hundred years ago a prisoner condemned to the Tower of London carved on the wall of his cell this sentiment to keep up his spirits during his long imprisonment: “It is not adversity that kills, but the impatience with which we bear adversity.”
If two people fight on the street, whose fault is it? Who is the criminal? It is the government’s responsibility because the government has not educated the people to not make mistakes. The people have inadequate, incompetent education, so they make mistakes! It is such a fraud.
Most people fancy themselves innocent of those crimes of which they cannot be convicted.
