Quotes

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

Prison, dungeons, blessed places where evil is impossible because they are the crossroads of all the evil in the world. One cannot commit evil in hell.

Before we can diminish our sufferings from the ill-controlled aggressive assaults of fellow citizens, we must renounce the philosophy of punishment, the obsolete, vengeful penal attitude. In its place we would seek a comprehensive, constructive social attitude - therapeutic in some instances, restraining in some instances, but preventive in its total social impact. In the last analysis this becomes a question of personal morals and values. No matter how glorified or how piously disguised, vengeance as a human motive must be personally repudiated by each and every one of us.

Concepts of justice must have hands and feet to carry out justice in every case in the shortest possible time and the lowest possible cost. That is the challenge to every lawyer and judge in America.

The severest justice may not always be the best policy.

If we look at Houston, which is a very environmentally toxic place, we find that it has one of the highest levels of young men going to prison and also among the highest levels of illiteracy in the country.

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.

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

Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.

By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere.

As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.

The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.

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

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

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 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.

The torment of human frustration, whatever its immediate cause, is the knowledge that the self is in prison, its vital force and 'mangled mind' leaking away in lonely, wasteful self-conflict.

In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.

We have initiated programs for re-entry offenders, since some 500,000 to 600,000 offenders will come out of prison each year for the next three or four years. We want to have positive alternatives when they come back to the community.

Let us remember that justice must be observed even to the lowest.

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.

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

The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.

Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.