If you share the crime of your friend,
If you share the crime of your friend, you make it your own.
Society prepares the crime; the criminal
Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.
Nothing can be more abhorrent to
Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.
We shall fight against them, throw them
We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them.
They were being driven to a prison,
They were being driven to a prison, through no fault of their own, in all probability for life. In comparison, how much easier it would be to walk to the gallows than to this tomb of living horrors!
Some laws of state aimed at curbing
Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.
I know not whether laws be right, or
I know not whether laws be right, or whether laws be wrong; All that we know who lie in gaol is that the wall is strong; And that each day is like a year, a year whose days are long.
Intellectual despair results in neither
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.
It isn't true that convicts live like
It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.
It is certain that the study of human
It is certain that the study of human psychology, if it were undertaken exclusively in prisons, would also lead to misrepresentation and absurd generalizations.
Liberty is rendered even more precious
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
Laws do not persuade just because they
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
Steal goods and you’ll go to prison,
Steal goods and you’ll go to prison, steal lands and you are a king.
Society has used the juvenile courts to
Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.
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.
Care should be taken that the punishment
Care should be taken that the punishment does not exceed the guilt; and also that some men do not suffer for offenses for which others are not even indicted.
Hanging was the worst use a man could be
Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.
How dreadful it is when the right judge
How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong.
Every crime has, in the moment of its
Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, Its own avenging angel--dark misgiving, An ominous sinking at the inmost heart.
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.
If we were brought to trial for the
If we were brought to trial for the crimes we have committed against ourselves, few would escape the gallows.
Man is condemned to be free.
Man is condemned to be free.
So justice while she winks at crimes,
So justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.
The world itself is but a large prison,
The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.
It was only when I lay there on the
It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not between states nor between social classes nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts. And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life.
