They're not supposed to show prison
They're not supposed to show prison films in prison. Especially ones that are about escaping.
Liberty is rendered even more precious
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
I never told a victim story about my
I never told a victim story about my imprisonment. Instead, I told a transformation story - about how prison changed my outlook, about how I saw that communication, truth, and trust are at the heart of power.
It isn't true that convicts live like
It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.
There are few better measures of the
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.
Assassination is the extreme form of
Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.
I have never been contained except I
I have never been contained except I made the prison.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.
Trial by jury itself, instead of being a
Trial by jury itself, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, shall be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare.
I just remember that disturbing feeling
I just remember that disturbing feeling of walking into that prison, the complete loss of privacy, the complete loss of stimulation, dignity.
It becomes not a law-maker to be a
It becomes not a law-maker to be a law-breaker.
Punishment, that is the justice for the
Punishment, that is the justice for the unjust.
It is true you cannot eat freedom and
It is true you cannot eat freedom and you cannot power machinery with democracy. But then neither can political prisoners turn on the light in the cells of a dictatorship.
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.
In prison, you get the chance to see who
In prison, you get the chance to see who really loves you.
I can tell you this on a stack of
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.
The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not
The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.
Civilization is maintained by a very few
Civilization is maintained by a very few people in a small number of places and we need only some bombs and a few prisons to blot it out altogether.
One crime has to be concealed by
One crime has to be concealed by another.
I am an expert of electricity. My father
I am an expert of electricity. My father occupied the chair of applied electricity at the state prison.
Clemency alone makes us equal to the
Clemency alone makes us equal to the gods.
Three hundred years ago a prisoner
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.”
The public have more interest in the
The public have more interest in the punishment of an injury than he who receives it.
Definition, rationality, and structure
Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing.
It is more dangerous that even a guilty
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
