I know not whether laws be right, or whether laws be wrong; All that we know who lie in gaol is that the wall is strong; And that each day is like a year, a year whose days are long.
Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.
Prison makes you a better judge of character. You pick up on people much faster.
Justice renders to every one his due.
In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.
The refined punishments of the spiritual mode are usually much more indecent and dangerous than a good smack.
Steal goods and you’ll go to prison, steal lands and you are a king.
Experts and the educated elite have replaced what worked with what sounded good. Society was far more civilized before they took over our schools, prisons, welfare programs, police departments and courts. It's high time we ran these people out of our lives and went back to common sense.
I am an expert of electricity. My father occupied the chair of applied electricity at the state prison.
Any punishment that does not correct, that can merely rouse rebellion in whoever has to endure it, is a piece of gratuitous infamy which makes those who impose it more guilty in the eyes of humanity, good sense and reason, nay a hundred times more guilty than the victim on whom the punishment is inflicted.
Well, I don't think prisons are the answer to everything, obviously.
A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.
Overlook our deeds, since you know that crime was absent from our inclination.
Forgiveness, that noblest of all self-denial, is a virtue which he alone who can practise in himself can willingly believe in another.
We don't seem to be able to check crime, so why not legalize it and then tax it out of business.
You utter a vow, or forge a signature, and you may find yourself bound for life to a monastery, a woman, or prison.
In jail a man has no personality. He is a minor disposal problem and a few entries on reports. Nobody cares who loves or hates him, what he looks like, what he did with his life. Nobody reacts to him unless he gives trouble. Nobody abuses him. All that is asked of him is that he go quietly to the right cell and remain quiet when he gets there. There is nothing to fight against, nothing to be mad at. The jailers are quiet men without animosity or sadism.
The severest justice may not always be the best policy.
It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not between states nor between social classes nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts. And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life.
Let us remember that justice must be observed even to the lowest.
To seek the redress of grievances by going to law, is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble bush.
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.
Fast closed with double grills And triple gates–the cell To wicked souls is hell; But to a mind that's innocent 'Tis only iron, wood and stone.
The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
