I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world; Shut up in the prison of their own consciences.
While crime is punished it yet increases.
Self is the only prison that can bind the soul.
Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.
A man who has no excuse for a crime, is indeed defenseless!
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
The worst prison is not of stone. It is of a throbbing heart, outraged by an infamous life.
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.
Prison, dungeons, blessed places where evil is impossible because they are the crossroads of all the evil in the world. One cannot commit evil in hell.
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.
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.
Justice renders to every one his due.
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.
A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.
I never told a victim story about my imprisonment. Instead, I told a transformation story - about how prison changed my outlook, about how I saw that communication, truth, and trust are at the heart of power.
I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.
Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation.
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.
In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.
We have initiated programs for re-entry offenders, since some 500,000 to 600,000 offenders will come out of prison each year for the next three or four years. We want to have positive alternatives when they come back to the community.
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.
It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.
I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.
