Quotes

As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.

The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.

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.

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.

If we were brought to trial for the crimes we have committed against ourselves, few would escape the gallows.

Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.

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

Women have worked hard; starved in prison; given of their time and lives that we might sit in the House of Commons and take part in the legislating of this country.

Trial by jury itself, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, shall be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare.

We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them.

Reality becomes a prison to those who can’t get out of it.

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

How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong.

I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up...I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through, before they could get to be as free as I was. I did not for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar.

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

Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.

Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?

Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger.

Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a God.

On a planet that increasingly resembles one huge Maximum Security prison, the only intelligent choice is to plan a jail break.

Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.

Written laws are like spiders' webs, and will, like them, only entangle and hold the poor and weak, while the rich and powerful will easily break through them.

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.”

A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.