Quotes

The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.

The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.

When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.

Corporal punishment falls far more heavily than most weighty pecuniary penalty.

There is a point at which even justice does injury.

Justice renders to every one his due.

Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.

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.

If we look at Houston, which is a very environmentally toxic place, we find that it has one of the highest levels of young men going to prison and also among the highest levels of illiteracy in the country.

What is crime amongst the multitude, is only vice among the 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.

Steal goods and you’ll go to prison, steal lands and you are a king.

Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.

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.

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!

No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.

In my country we go to prison first and then become President.

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.

When you are younger you get blamed for crimes you never committed and when you're older you begin to get credit for virtues you never possessed. It evens itself out.

Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.

Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.

A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.

It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.

He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.

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