Those magistrates who can prevent crime, and do not, in effect encourage it.
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.
The punishment can be remitted; the crime is everlasting.
I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.
One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.
Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.
By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere.
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.
No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.
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.
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.
It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.
Extreme justice is extreme injustice.
The contagion of crime is like that of the plague. Criminals collected together corrupt each other; they are worse than ever when at the termination of their punishment they re-enter society.
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.
The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.
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.
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.
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 object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
Concepts of justice must have hands and feet to carry out justice in every case in the shortest possible time and the lowest possible cost. That is the challenge to every lawyer and judge in America.
One crime is everything; two nothing.
