One of the many lessons that one learns
One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.
Civilization is maintained by a very few
Civilization is maintained by a very few people in a small number of places and we need only some bombs and a few prisons to blot it out altogether.
I am certain that nothing has done so
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.
In prisons, those things withheld from
In prisons, those things withheld from and denied to the prisoner become precisely what he wants most of all.
It isn't true that convicts live like
It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.
Care should be taken that the punishment
Care should be taken that the punishment does not exceed the guilt; and also that some men do not suffer for offenses for which others are not even indicted.
The solution to our drug problem is not
The solution to our drug problem is not in incarceration.
Prison, dungeons, blessed places where
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.
Assassination is the extreme form of
Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.
When it comes to freedom, we are but
When it comes to freedom, we are but prisoners of our own desires.
Distrust all in whom the impulse to
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
Prison continues, on those who are
Prison continues, on those who are entrusted to it, a work begun elsewhere, which the whole of society pursues on each individual through innumerable mechanisms of discipline.
Probably the only place where a man can
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
I can tell you this on a stack of
I can tell you this on a stack of Bibles: prisons are archaic, brutal, unregenerative, overcrowded hell holes where the inmates are treated like animals with absolutely not one humane thought given to what they are going to do once they are released. You're an animal in a cage and you're treated like one.
The only difference between me and my
The only difference between me and my fellow actors is that I've spent more time in jail.
The power of punishment is to silence,
The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.
One man meets an infamous punishment for
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.
Corporal punishment falls far more
Corporal punishment falls far more heavily than most weighty pecuniary penalty.
No written law has been more binding
No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
A pedestal is as much a prison as any
A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.
He who profits by a crime commits it.
He who profits by a crime commits it.
The public have more interest in the
The public have more interest in the punishment of an injury than he who receives it.
Shyness is the prison of the heart.
Shyness is the prison of the heart.
When you are younger you get blamed for
When you are younger you get blamed for crimes you never committed and when you're older you begin to get credit for virtues you never possessed. It evens itself out.