In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.
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.
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.
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.
We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them.
The guilt of enforced crimes lies on those who impose them.
It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.
Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.
The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.
The torment of human frustration, whatever its immediate cause, is the knowledge that the self is in prison, its vital force and 'mangled mind' leaking away in lonely, wasteful self-conflict.
Faults of the head are punished in this world, those of the heart in another; but as most of our vices are compound, so also is their punishment.
Three hundred years ago a prisoner condemned to the Tower of London carved on the wall of his cell this sentiment to keep up his spirits during his long imprisonment: “It is not adversity that kills, but the impatience with which we bear adversity.”
Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.
Fast closed with double grills And triple gates–the cell To wicked souls is hell; But to a mind that's innocent 'Tis only iron, wood and stone.
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.
To be at peace in crime! Ah, who can thus flatter himself.
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.
Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?
The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.
A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.
In jail a man has no personality. He is a minor disposal problem and a few entries on reports. Nobody cares who loves or hates him, what he looks like, what he did with his life. Nobody reacts to him unless he gives trouble. Nobody abuses him. All that is asked of him is that he go quietly to the right cell and remain quiet when he gets there. There is nothing to fight against, nothing to be mad at. The jailers are quiet men without animosity or sadism.
Let us remember that justice must be observed even to the lowest.
