When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them.
The worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door.
I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.
Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation.
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.
While we have prisons it matters little which of us occupy the cells.
Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.
Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
Nor cell, nor chain, nor dungeon speaks to the murderer like the voice of solitude.
The refined punishments of the spiritual mode are usually much more indecent and dangerous than a good smack.
As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.
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.
It is not at the table, but in prison, that you learn who your true friends are.
There is no greater punishment of wickedness that that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.
Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.
~James Bell
Trial by jury itself, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, shall be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare.
I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.
In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.
Whatever you think of de Sade, he was a complex figure and we should not look for easy answers with him. He was, strangely perhaps, against the death penalty, and he was never put in prison for murders or anything like that.
We're in a war. People who blast some pot on a casual basis are guilty of treason.
The punishment can be remitted; the crime is everlasting.
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!
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.
