No man survives when freedom fails. The best men rot in filthy jails, and those who cry 'appease, appease' are hanged by those they tried to please.
Care should be taken that the punishment does not exceed the guilt; and also that some men do not suffer for offenses for which others are not even indicted.
No man should be judge in his own case.
Faults of the head are punished in this world, those of the heart in another; but as most of our vices are compound, so also is their punishment.
Prison continues, on those who are entrusted to it, a work begun elsewhere, which the whole of society pursues on each individual through innumerable mechanisms of discipline.
Body is a home, a prison and a grave.
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.
On a planet that increasingly resembles one huge Maximum Security prison, the only intelligent choice is to plan a jail break.
The best situation of all, and one frequently utilized, is for jails and prisons to allow volunteer ministers of all faiths to enter prisons and offer their services to the inmates who want them. That way, the religious needs of inmates are met but without government funds being spent.
There is no greater punishment of wickedness that that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.
The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
Wherever any one is against his will, that is to him a prison.
In my country we go to prison first and then become President.
The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.
The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.
I was in prison, and you came unto me. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
~(Jesus Christ) Matthew 25:36, 40
I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
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.
Every instance of a man's suffering the penalty of the law is an instance of the failure of that penalty in effecting its purpose, which is to deter.
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, Can be retentive to the strength of spirit; But life, being weary of these worldly bars, Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.
