There are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves; but it were much better to make such good provisions, by which every man might be put in a method how to live, and so to be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and dying for it.
The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.
A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
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.
Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger.
When it comes to freedom, we are but prisoners of our own desires.
The guilt of enforced crimes lies on those who impose them.
The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.
I have been studying how I may compare This prison where I live unto the world; And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it. Yet I'll hammer it out.
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.
What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor.
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
They took away my money, my family, and my security. Why couldn't they destroy my ideas? We will question them in court tomorrow as we trigger The Revolution of all revolutions!
One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
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.
To be at peace in crime! Ah, who can thus flatter himself.
Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.
Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
I have never been contained except I made the prison.
They're not supposed to show prison films in prison. Especially ones that are about escaping.
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.”
