Quotes

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.

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.

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.

What is crime amongst the multitude, is only vice among the few.

In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.

Clemency alone makes us equal to the gods.

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.

If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.

They took away my money, my family, and my security. Why couldn't they destroy my ideas? We will question them in court tomorrow as we trigger The Revolution of all revolutions!

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

It is not at the table, but in prison, that you learn who your true friends are.

The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.

Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.

The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.

Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.

I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up...I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through, before they could get to be as free as I was. I did not for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar.

A man who has no excuse for a crime, is indeed defenseless!

There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals.

No crime has been without a precedent.

The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.

Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.

Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.

So justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.

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