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.
A country is in a bad state, which is governed only by laws; because a thousand things occur for which laws cannot provide, and where authority ought to interpose.
The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.
I have been studying how I may compare This prison where I live unto the world; And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it. Yet I'll hammer it out.
In prison, you get the chance to see who really loves you.
Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation.
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
Clemency alone makes us equal to the gods.
The number of laws is constantly growing in all countries and, owing to this, what is called crime is very often not a crime at all, for it contains no element of violence or harm.
You stuff somebody into the American dream, and it becomes a prison.
Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
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.
Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.
Nor cell, nor chain, nor dungeon speaks to the murderer like the voice of solitude.
The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.
Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.
I have never been contained except I made the prison.
There are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves; but it were much better to make such good provisions, by which every man might be put in a method how to live, and so to be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and dying for it.
No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.
It is the deed that teaches, not the name we give it. Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another, but similars that breed their own kind.
While crime is punished it yet increases.
Civilization is maintained by a very few people in a small number of places and we need only some bombs and a few prisons to blot it out altogether.
Money will determine whether the accused goes to prison or walks out of the courtroom a free man.
