The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
The mellow sweetness of pumpkin pie off a prison spoon is something you will never forget.
No matter how you seem to fatten on a crime, that can never be good for the bee which is bad for the hive.
On average, drug prisoners spend more time in federal prison than rapists, who often get out on early release because of the overcrowding in prison caused by the Drug War.
Forgiveness, that noblest of all self-denial, is a virtue which he alone who can practise in himself can willingly believe in another.
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.
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.
In my country we go to prison first and then become President.
The only effect of public punishment is to show the rabble how bravely it can be borne; and that every one who hath lost a toe-nail hath suffered worse.
The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.
He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.
Prosecution I have managed to avoid; but I have been arrested, charged in a police court, have refused to be bound over, and thereupon have been unconditionally released - to my great regret; for I have always wanted to know what going to prison was like.
Man is condemned to be free.
No man should be judge in his own case.
Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.
Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, Can be retentive to the strength of spirit; But life, being weary of these worldly bars, Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.
Justice is justice though it's always delayed and finally done only by mistake.
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.
Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
The worst prison is not of stone. It is of a throbbing heart, outraged by an infamous life.
Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.
Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, Its own avenging angel--dark misgiving, An ominous sinking at the inmost heart.
