Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a God.
It is not at the table, but in prison, that you learn who your true friends are.
The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.
If two people fight on the street, whose fault is it? Who is the criminal? It is the government’s responsibility because the government has not educated the people to not make mistakes. The people have inadequate, incompetent education, so they make mistakes! It is such a fraud.
I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.
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.
I was in prison, and you came unto me. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
~(Jesus Christ) Matthew 25:36, 40
The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.
The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.
Every instance of a man's suffering the penalty of the law is an instance of the failure of that penalty in effecting its purpose, which is to deter.
Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation.
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.
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
There is no greater punishment of wickedness that that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.
Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.
The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.
Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.
A just chastisement may benefit a man, though it seldom does; but an unjust one changes all his blood to gall.
We're in a war. People who blast some pot on a casual basis are guilty of treason.
The contagion of crime is like that of the plague. Criminals collected together corrupt each other; they are worse than ever when at the termination of their punishment they re-enter society.
I can tell you this on a stack of Bibles: prisons are archaic, brutal, unregenerative, overcrowded hell holes where the inmates are treated like animals with absolutely not one humane thought given to what they are going to do once they are released. You're an animal in a cage and you're treated like one.
I have never been contained except I made the prison.
Extreme justice is extreme injustice.
The only difference between me and my fellow actors is that I've spent more time in jail.
