Quotes

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.

Women now have choices. They can be married, not married, have a job, not have a job, be married with children, unmarried with children. Men have the same choice we've always had: work, or prison.

In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.

A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.

In prison, you get the chance to see who really loves you.

The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.

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

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

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

Fear can be like a prison. It is, however, a self made prison. Many are imprisoned by fear. No one else can liberate them from this prison. Others may inspire them but they must liberate themselves.

Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.

I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.

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.

America is the land of the second chance – and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.

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

Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.

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

You stuff somebody into the American dream, and it becomes a prison.

If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.

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.

When is conduct a crime, and when is a crime not a crime? When Somebody Up There -- a monarch, a dictator, a Pope, a legislator -- so decrees.

Forgiveness, that noblest of all self-denial, is a virtue which he alone who can practise in himself can willingly believe in another.

Overlook our deeds, since you know that crime was absent from our inclination.

To trial bring her stolen charms, and let her prison be my arms.