The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.
In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.
Well, I don't think prisons are the answer to everything, obviously.
If you treat prisoners well, they will be less angry, less inclined to violence inside prison, less likely to provoke violent actions by guards, less likely to have reason to file brutality lawsuits that cost taxpayers a bundle and waste administrators' time. And most important, well-treated prisoners will be less likely to leave prison angrier, more vicious and more inclined to criminal behavior than when they went in.
The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.
A just chastisement may benefit a man, though it seldom does; but an unjust one changes all his blood to gall.
We're in a war. People who blast some pot on a casual basis are guilty of treason.
The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.
Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, Its own avenging angel--dark misgiving, An ominous sinking at the inmost heart.
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.
Written laws are like spiders' webs, and will, like them, only entangle and hold the poor and weak, while the rich and powerful will easily break through them.
Vices are not crimes.
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.
The public have more interest in the punishment of an injury than he who receives it.
They're not supposed to show prison films in prison. Especially ones that are about escaping.
Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter? He went to prison for three years, not Princeton.
When it comes to freedom, we are but prisoners of our own desires.
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.
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.
I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.
By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere.
We have our own system, ... and journalists in our system are not put in prison for embarrassing the government by revealing things the government might not wish to have revealed. The important thing is that our system, under which journalists can write without fear or favor, should continue.
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
