A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.
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.
Most people fancy themselves innocent of those crimes of which they cannot be convicted.
One crime is everything; two nothing.
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.
No obligation to justice does force a man to be cruel, or to use the sharpest sentence.
Nor cell, nor chain, nor dungeon speaks to the murderer like the voice of solitude.
To be in prison so long, it's difficult to remember exactly what you did to get there.
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
I have never been contained except I made the prison.
When it comes to freedom, we are but prisoners of our own desires.
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.
The best situation of all, and one frequently utilized, is for jails and prisons to allow volunteer ministers of all faiths to enter prisons and offer their services to the inmates who want them. That way, the religious needs of inmates are met but without government funds being spent.
Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?
Vices are not crimes.
To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.
I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there.
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.
I can work for the Lord in or out of prison.
Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger.
Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.
I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
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.
