We who live in prison, and in whose lives there is no event but sorrow, have to measure time by throbs of pain, and the record of bitter moments.
Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.
Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.
Prison, dungeons, blessed places where evil is impossible because they are the crossroads of all the evil in the world. One cannot commit evil in hell.
In my country we go to prison first and then become President.
He was a first-time nonviolent possible offender, ... And under the mandatory minimums, he was put in prison for 15 years. Not only does the punishment not fit the crime, but the mandatory minimums don't give judges any discretion to look at the background of the case, to read into the specifics of the case. I don't know a judge who really is in favor of the mandatory minimums.
To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.
How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong.
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.
The punishment can be remitted; the crime is everlasting.
It becomes not a law-maker to be a law-breaker.
The only effect of public punishment is to show the rabble how bravely it can be borne; and that every one who hath lost a toe-nail hath suffered worse.
You utter a vow, or forge a signature, and you may find yourself bound for life to a monastery, a woman, or prison.
Since 1957, black people have experienced double-digit unemployment - in good times and bad times. Look at the population of African Americans in prison. They represent more than half the population of prisoners in the country, 55 percent of those on death row.
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.
To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.
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 isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.
Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrist? And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists? And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air? Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.
Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger.
Whatever is worthy to be loved for anything is worthy of preservation. A wise and dispassionate legislator, if any such should ever arise among men, will not condemn to death him who has done or is likely to do more service than injury to society. Blocks and gibbets are the nearest objects with legislators, and their business is never with hopes or with virtues.
If we were brought to trial for the crimes we have committed against ourselves, few would escape the gallows.
No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
