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.
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.
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.
Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.
He had drawn many a thousand of these rations in prisons and camps, and though he'd never had an opportunity to weight them on scales, and although, being a man of timid nature, he knew no way of standing up for his rights, he, like every other prisoner, had discovered long ago that honest weight was never to be found in the bread-cutting. There was short weight in every ration. The only point was how short. So every day you took a look to soothe your soul - today, maybe, they haven't snitched any.
Corporal punishment falls far more heavily than most weighty pecuniary penalty.
Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.
Money will determine whether the accused goes to prison or walks out of the courtroom a free man.
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.
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.
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 degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger.
It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.
If you treat prisoners well, they will be less angry, less inclined to violence inside prison, less likely to provoke violent actions by guards, less likely to have reason to file brutality lawsuits that cost taxpayers a bundle and waste administrators' time. And most important, well-treated prisoners will be less likely to leave prison angrier, more vicious and more inclined to criminal behavior than when they went in.
Clemency alone makes us equal to the gods.
The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.
To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.
I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there.
What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor.
The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison walls.
I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world; Shut up in the prison of their own consciences.
A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.
Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.
