Show me the prison, Show me the jail, Show me the prisoner whose life has gone stale. And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why And there, but for fortune, go you or I.
Well, I don't think prisons are the answer to everything, obviously.
I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice.
So justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.
You utter a vow, or forge a signature, and you may find yourself bound for life to a monastery, a woman, or prison.
The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
The punishment can be remitted; the crime is everlasting.
Nor cell, nor chain, nor dungeon speaks to the murderer like the voice of solitude.
I know not whether laws be right, or whether laws be wrong; All that we know who lie in gaol is that the wall is strong; And that each day is like a year, a year whose days are long.
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.
The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
If we were brought to trial for the crimes we have committed against ourselves, few would escape the gallows.
To be at peace in crime! Ah, who can thus flatter himself.
We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them.
I wrote a million words in the first year, and I could never have done that outside of prison.
We don't seem to be able to check crime, so why not legalize it and then tax it out of business.
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.
Extreme justice is extreme injustice.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.
Experts and the educated elite have replaced what worked with what sounded good. Society was far more civilized before they took over our schools, prisons, welfare programs, police departments and courts. It's high time we ran these people out of our lives and went back to common sense.
Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, Its own avenging angel--dark misgiving, An ominous sinking at the inmost heart.
The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime can be prevented, which is almost as dubious as the notion that poverty can be prevented.
There is no greater punishment of wickedness that that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.
