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.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
I was put into jail as I was going to the shoemaker's to get a shoe which was mended. When I was let out the next morning, I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my mended shoe, joined a huckleberry party, who were impatient to put themselves under my conduct; and in half an hour -- for the horse was soon tackled -- was in the midst of a huckleberry field, on one of our highest hills, two miles off, and then the State was nowhere to be seen.
Women now have choices. They can be married, not married, have a job, not have a job, be married with children, unmarried with children. Men have the same choice we've always had: work, or prison.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst!
Corporal punishment falls far more heavily than most weighty pecuniary penalty.
Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.
~James Bell
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
Reality becomes a prison to those who can’t get out of it.
Extreme justice is extreme injustice.
Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?
In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.
Pardon is the virtue of victory.
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.
Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future lives and crimes to society.
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.
The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.
Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.
Self is the only prison that can bind the soul.
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.
America is the land of the second chance – and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.
