Quotes

The torment of human frustration, whatever its immediate cause, is the knowledge that the self is in prison, its vital force and 'mangled mind' leaking away in lonely, wasteful self-conflict.

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.

A sick person is a prisoner.

Man is condemned to be free.

No crime has been without a precedent.

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.

What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor.

Whatever is worthy to be loved for anything is worthy of preservation. A wise and dispassionate legislator, if any such should ever arise among men, will not condemn to death him who has done or is likely to do more service than injury to society. Blocks and gibbets are the nearest objects with legislators, and their business is never with hopes or with virtues.

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.

I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world; Shut up in the prison of their own consciences.

There are only two places in the world where time takes precedence over the job to be done. School and prison.

It is impossible to go through life without trust: That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.

Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future lives and crimes to society.

To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.

There's no greater threat to our independence, to our cherished freedoms and personal liberties than the continual, relentless injection of these insidious poisons into our system. We must decide whether we cherish independence from drugs, without which there is no freedom.

It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.

One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.

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

Governments have tried to stop crime through punishment throughout the ages, but crime continued in the past punishment remains. Crime can only be stopped through a preventive approach in the schools. You teach the students Transcendental Meditation, and right away they’ll begin using their full brain physiology sensible and they will not get sidetracked into wrong things.

The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.

Nor cell, nor chain, nor dungeon speaks to the murderer like the voice of solitude.

If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking…is freedom.

Vices are not crimes.

It is safer that a bad man should not be accused, than that he should be acquitted.

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