Quotes

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 virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.

To try to raise a son from inside the prison walls is a very difficult thing. But I want to say to the world my son at 16 was the one who tried the most to get me out of prison.
~Jim Bakker

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.

You stuff somebody into the American dream, and it becomes a prison.

I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.

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.

Whatever is worthy to be loved for anything is worthy of preservation. A wise and dispassionate legislator, if any such should ever arise among men, will not condemn to death him who has done or is likely to do more service than injury to society. Blocks and gibbets are the nearest objects with legislators, and their business is never with hopes or with virtues.

Steal goods and you’ll go to prison, steal lands and you are a king.

Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.

Governments have tried to stop crime through punishment throughout the ages, but crime continued in the past punishment remains. Crime can only be stopped through a preventive approach in the schools. You teach the students Transcendental Meditation, and right away they’ll begin using their full brain physiology sensible and they will not get sidetracked into wrong things.

Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?

Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.

Women have worked hard; starved in prison; given of their time and lives that we might sit in the House of Commons and take part in the legislating of this country.

It is safer that a bad man should not be accused, than that he should be acquitted.

I have been studying how I may compare This prison where I live unto the world; And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it. Yet I'll hammer it out.

Forgiveness, that noblest of all self-denial, is a virtue which he alone who can practise in himself can willingly believe in another.

If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst!

It becomes not a law-maker to be a law-breaker.

The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.

To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.

Do not lay on the multitude the blame that is due to a few.

Those magistrates who can prevent crime, and do not, in effect encourage it.

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.