Quotes

I am an expert of electricity. My father occupied the chair of applied electricity at the state prison.

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

Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.

Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, Can be retentive to the strength of spirit; But life, being weary of these worldly bars, Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.

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 the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.

While crime is punished it yet increases.

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.

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

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.

A man who has no excuse for a crime, is indeed defenseless!

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

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.

Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing.

One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.

Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrist? And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists? And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air? Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.

Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

To seek the redress of grievances by going to law, is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble bush.

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.

The only difference between me and my fellow actors is that I've spent more time in jail.

The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.