He was a first-time nonviolent possible offender, ... And under the mandatory minimums, he was put in prison for 15 years. Not only does the punishment not fit the crime, but the mandatory minimums don't give judges any discretion to look at the background of the case, to read into the specifics of the case. I don't know a judge who really is in favor of the mandatory minimums.
It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.
Whatever you think of de Sade, he was a complex figure and we should not look for easy answers with him. He was, strangely perhaps, against the death penalty, and he was never put in prison for murders or anything like that.
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
When it comes to freedom, we are but prisoners of our own desires.
I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.
Prosecution I have managed to avoid; but I have been arrested, charged in a police court, have refused to be bound over, and thereupon have been unconditionally released - to my great regret; for I have always wanted to know what going to prison was like.
Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.
If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.
Justice renders to every one his due.
Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.
Well does Heaven have care that no man secures happiness by crime.
Prison, dungeons, blessed places where evil is impossible because they are the crossroads of all the evil in the world. One cannot commit evil in hell.
The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.
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.
While we have prisons it matters little which of us occupy the cells.
Fast closed with double grills And triple gates–the cell To wicked souls is hell; But to a mind that's innocent 'Tis only iron, wood and stone.
There is no peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.
The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.
No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
Pardon is the virtue of victory.
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.”
When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.
One crime is everything; two nothing.
The public have more interest in the punishment of an injury than he who receives it.
