Society has used the juvenile courts to
Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.
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.
Experts and the educated elite have
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 existed in a world that never is - the
I existed in a world that never is - the prison of the mind.
Crimes generally punish themselves.
Crimes generally punish themselves.
Reality becomes a prison to those who
Reality becomes a prison to those who can’t get out of it.
It is true you cannot eat freedom and
It is true you cannot eat freedom and you cannot power machinery with democracy. But then neither can political prisoners turn on the light in the cells of a dictatorship.
Every crime has, in the moment of its
Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, Its own avenging angel--dark misgiving, An ominous sinking at the inmost heart.
In jail a man has no personality. He is
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.
One of the problems that the marijuana
One of the problems that the marijuana reform movement consistently faces is that everyone wants to talk about what marijuana does, but no one ever wants to look at what marijuana prohibition does. Marijuana never kicks down your door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows. Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.
It is better that ten guilty persons
It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.
One man meets an infamous punishment for
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.
Distrust all in whom the impulse to
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
If we look at Houston, which is a very
If we look at Houston, which is a very environmentally toxic place, we find that it has one of the highest levels of young men going to prison and also among the highest levels of illiteracy in the country.
A sick person is a prisoner.
A sick person is a prisoner.
Educate your children to self-control,
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.
Any punishment that does not correct,
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.
To seek the redress of grievances by
To seek the redress of grievances by going to law, is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble bush.
No man should be judge in his own case.
No man should be judge in his own case.
The public have more interest in the
The public have more interest in the punishment of an injury than he who receives it.
In prison, you get the chance to see who
In prison, you get the chance to see who really loves you.
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.
The English laws punish vice; the
The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.
In a civilized society, all crimes are
In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.
I know how men in exile feed on dreams
I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
