He had drawn many a thousand of these rations in prisons and camps, and though he'd never had an opportunity to weight them on scales, and although, being a man of timid nature, he knew no way of standing up for his rights, he, like every other prisoner, had discovered long ago that honest weight was never to be found in the bread-cutting. There was short weight in every ration. The only point was how short. So every day you took a look to soothe your soul - today, maybe, they haven't snitched any.
The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.
The mellow sweetness of pumpkin pie off a prison spoon is something you will never forget.
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.
No man should be judge in his own case.
No obligation to justice does force a man to be cruel, or to use the sharpest sentence.
He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.
It is impossible to go through life without trust: That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.
In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.
Justice is justice though it's always delayed and finally done only by mistake.
Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.
Body is a home, a prison and a grave.
One crime has to be concealed by another.
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.
It is not at the table, but in prison, that you learn who your true friends are.
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.
America is the land of the second chance – and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.
Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.
You utter a vow, or forge a signature, and you may find yourself bound for life to a monastery, a woman, or prison.
I have never been contained except I made the prison.
