Quotes

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.

The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.

I have been studying how I may compare This prison where I live unto the world; And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it. Yet I'll hammer it out.

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 solution to our drug problem is not in incarceration.

A sick person is a prisoner.

Those magistrates who can prevent crime, and do not, in effect encourage it.

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.

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 virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.

We're in a war. People who blast some pot on a casual basis are guilty of treason.

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

If you share the crime of your friend, you make it your own.

Man is condemned to be free.

The contagion of crime is like that of the plague. Criminals collected together corrupt each other; they are worse than ever when at the termination of their punishment they re-enter society.

The only effect of public punishment is to show the rabble how bravely it can be borne; and that every one who hath lost a toe-nail hath suffered worse.

What is crime amongst the multitude, is only vice among the few.

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

I can tell you this on a stack of Bibles: prisons are archaic, brutal, unregenerative, overcrowded hell holes where the inmates are treated like animals with absolutely not one humane thought given to what they are going to do once they are released. You're an animal in a cage and you're treated like one.

When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.

Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation.

The mellow sweetness of pumpkin pie off a prison spoon is something you will never forget.

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.

Punishment, that is the justice for the unjust.