How dreadful it is when the right judge
How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong.
What is crime amongst the multitude, is
What is crime amongst the multitude, is only vice among the few.
To be in prison so long, it's difficult
To be in prison so long, it's difficult to remember exactly what you did to get there.
It is more dangerous that even a guilty
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
Vices are not crimes.
Vices are not crimes.
Prosecution I have managed to avoid; but
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.
Do not lay on the multitude the blame
Do not lay on the multitude the blame that is due to a few.
To trial bring her stolen charms, and
To trial bring her stolen charms, and let her prison be my arms.
The refined punishments of the spiritual
The refined punishments of the spiritual mode are usually much more indecent and dangerous than a good smack.
I submit that an individual who breaks a
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.
Reality becomes a prison to those who
Reality becomes a prison to those who can’t get out of it.
The most anxious man in a prison is the
The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.
Before we can diminish our sufferings
Before we can diminish our sufferings from the ill-controlled aggressive assaults of fellow citizens, we must renounce the philosophy of punishment, the obsolete, vengeful penal attitude. In its place we would seek a comprehensive, constructive social attitude - therapeutic in some instances, restraining in some instances, but preventive in its total social impact. In the last analysis this becomes a question of personal morals and values. No matter how glorified or how piously disguised, vengeance as a human motive must be personally repudiated by each and every one of us.
Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't
Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?
If punishment reaches not the mind and
If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.
No written law has been more binding
No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
Justice renders to every one his due.
Justice renders to every one his due.
Faults of the head are punished in this
Faults of the head are punished in this world, those of the heart in another; but as most of our vices are compound, so also is their punishment.
By noiselessly going to a prison a
By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere.
Those magistrates who can prevent crime,
Those magistrates who can prevent crime, and do not, in effect encourage it.
A Sunday school is a prison in which
A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.
As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more
As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.
Hanging was the worst use a man could be
Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.
The idea that the sole aim of punishment
The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime can be prevented, which is almost as dubious as the notion that poverty can be prevented.
Three hundred years ago a prisoner
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.”
