The uneven impact of actual enforcement measures tends to mirror and reinforce more general patterns of discrimination (along socioeconomic, racial and ethnic, sexual, and perhaps generational lines) within the society. As a consequence, such enforcement (ineffective as it may be in producing conformity) almost certainly reinforces feelings of alienation already prevalent within major segments of the population.
A man who has no excuse for a crime, is indeed defenseless!
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.
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.
It is true you cannot eat freedom and you cannot power machinery with democracy. But then neither can political prisoners turn on the light in the cells of a dictatorship.
Vices are not crimes.
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.
It is impossible to go through life without trust: That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.
You utter a vow, or forge a signature, and you may find yourself bound for life to a monastery, a woman, or prison.
Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger.
Women have worked hard; starved in prison; given of their time and lives that we might sit in the House of Commons and take part in the legislating of this country.
Body is a home, a prison and a grave.
It is certain that the study of human psychology, if it were undertaken exclusively in prisons, would also lead to misrepresentation and absurd generalizations.
To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.
The refined punishments of the spiritual mode are usually much more indecent and dangerous than a good smack.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.
We're in a war. People who blast some pot on a casual basis are guilty of treason.
A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.
When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.
If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking…is freedom.
The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.
The punishment can be remitted; the crime is everlasting.
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.
Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.
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.
