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.
Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.
Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.
I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.
Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation.
He was a first-time nonviolent possible offender, ... And under the mandatory minimums, he was put in prison for 15 years. Not only does the punishment not fit the crime, but the mandatory minimums don't give judges any discretion to look at the background of the case, to read into the specifics of the case. I don't know a judge who really is in favor of the mandatory minimums.
You utter a vow, or forge a signature, and you may find yourself bound for life to a monastery, a woman, or prison.
The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.
Corporal punishment falls far more heavily than most weighty pecuniary penalty.
There is no peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.
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.
Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.
The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison walls.
As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.
We're in a war. People who blast some pot on a casual basis are guilty of treason.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
Whatever you think of de Sade, he was a complex figure and we should not look for easy answers with him. He was, strangely perhaps, against the death penalty, and he was never put in prison for murders or anything like that.
It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.
Let us remember that justice must be observed even to the lowest.
Crimes generally punish themselves.
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.
