Quotes

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

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

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.

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

Shyness is the prison of the heart.

The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.

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.

The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.

The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.

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%.

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.”

Intellectual despair results in neither weakness nor dreams, but in violence. It is only a matter of knowing how to give vent to one's rage; whether one only wants to wander like madmen around prisons, or whether one wants to overturn them.

A country is in a bad state, which is governed only by laws; because a thousand things occur for which laws cannot provide, and where authority ought to interpose.

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

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

Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.

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

Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, Its own avenging angel--dark misgiving, An ominous sinking at the inmost heart.

Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.

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

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.

If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking…is freedom.

Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.

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

The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.