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.
By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere.
I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.
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.
One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.
They were being driven to a prison, through no fault of their own, in all probability for life. In comparison, how much easier it would be to walk to the gallows than to this tomb of living horrors!
If we look at Houston, which is a very environmentally toxic place, we find that it has one of the highest levels of young men going to prison and also among the highest levels of illiteracy in the country.
It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not between states nor between social classes nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts. And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life.
Since 1957, black people have experienced double-digit unemployment - in good times and bad times. Look at the population of African Americans in prison. They represent more than half the population of prisoners in the country, 55 percent of those on death row.
A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.
In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.
Well, I don't think prisons are the answer to everything, obviously.
You stuff somebody into the American dream, and it becomes a prison.
A sick person is a prisoner.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
Trial by jury itself, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, shall be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare.
While crime is punished it yet increases.
He who opens a school door, closes a prison.
The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
Every instance of a man's suffering the penalty of the law is an instance of the failure of that penalty in effecting its purpose, which is to deter.
The guilt of enforced crimes lies on those who impose them.
A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.
Let us remember that justice must be observed even to the lowest.
