I never told a victim story about my imprisonment. Instead, I told a transformation story - about how prison changed my outlook, about how I saw that communication, truth, and trust are at the heart of power.
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.
Man is condemned to be free.
In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.
Well does Heaven have care that no man secures happiness by crime.
A just chastisement may benefit a man, though it seldom does; but an unjust one changes all his blood to gall.
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
Do not lay on the multitude the blame that is due to a few.
There is a point at which even justice does injury.
In prison, you get the chance to see who really loves you.
One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
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.
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
In my country we go to prison first and then become President.
I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.
Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.
One crime has to be concealed by another.
A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.
Show me the prison, Show me the jail, Show me the prisoner whose life has gone stale. And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why And there, but for fortune, go you or I.
Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrist? And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists? And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air? Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
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.
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.
