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.
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.
Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.
How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong.
Women now have choices. They can be married, not married, have a job, not have a job, be married with children, unmarried with children. Men have the same choice we've always had: work, or prison.
There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them.
There are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves; but it were much better to make such good provisions, by which every man might be put in a method how to live, and so to be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and dying for it.
It is safer that a bad man should not be accused, than that he should be acquitted.
The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.
Trial by jury itself, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, shall be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare.
Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.
~James Bell
To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.
The refined punishments of the spiritual mode are usually much more indecent and dangerous than a good smack.
In prison, you get the chance to see who really loves you.
What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor.
To seek the redress of grievances by going to law, is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble bush.
The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
We are prisoners of ideas.
The severest justice may not always be the best policy.
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.
Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation.
Extreme justice is extreme injustice.
