I can tell you this on a stack of
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.
There are few better measures of the
There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals.
It is the deed that teaches, not the
It is the deed that teaches, not the name we give it. Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another, but similars that breed their own kind.
Definition, rationality, and structure
Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing.
Man is born free, and everywhere he is
Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
To be at peace in crime! Ah, who can
To be at peace in crime! Ah, who can thus flatter himself.
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.
Overlook our deeds, since you know that
Overlook our deeds, since you know that crime was absent from our inclination.
The punishment can be remitted; the
The punishment can be remitted; the crime is everlasting.
The perfection of a thing consists in
The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.
We shall not yield to violence. We shall
We shall not yield to violence. We shall not be deprived of union freedoms. We shall never agree with sending people to prison for their convictions.
Two men look out the same prison bars;
Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.
If punishment reaches not the mind and
If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.
Liberty is rendered even more precious
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
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.
I existed in a world that never is - the
I existed in a world that never is - the prison of the mind.
Most people fancy themselves innocent of
I have been studying how I may compare
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.
One should respect public opinion
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.
If we were brought to trial for the
If we were brought to trial for the crimes we have committed against ourselves, few would escape the gallows.
It isn't true that convicts live like
It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.
The degree of civilization in a society
The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
It is safer that a bad man should not be
It is safer that a bad man should not be accused, than that he should be acquitted.
No obligation to justice does force a
No obligation to justice does force a man to be cruel, or to use the sharpest sentence.
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.”
