Justice is that virtue of the soul which
Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.
He was a first-time nonviolent possible
He was a first-time nonviolent possible offender, ... And under the mandatory minimums, he was put in prison for 15 years. Not only does the punishment not fit the crime, but the mandatory minimums don't give judges any discretion to look at the background of the case, to read into the specifics of the case. I don't know a judge who really is in favor of the mandatory minimums.
I can tell you this on a stack of
I can tell you this on a stack of Bibles: prisons are archaic, brutal, unregenerative, overcrowded hell holes where the inmates are treated like animals with absolutely not one humane thought given to what they are going to do once they are released. You're an animal in a cage and you're treated like one.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
Distrust all in whom the impulse to
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
I submit that an individual who breaks a
I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
We are prisoners of ideas.
We are prisoners of ideas.
Definition, rationality, and structure
Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing.
I sometimes wish that people would put a
I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.
The guilt of enforced crimes lies on
The guilt of enforced crimes lies on those who impose them.
I wrote a million words in the first
I wrote a million words in the first year, and I could never have done that outside of prison.
Wherever any one is against his will,
Wherever any one is against his will, that is to him a prison.
The world is a prison in which solitary
The world is a prison in which solitary confinement is preferable.
One man meets an infamous punishment for
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.
The only real prison is fear, and the
The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.
Crime is a logical extension of the sort
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
Corporal punishment falls far more
Corporal punishment falls far more heavily than most weighty pecuniary penalty.
Intellectual despair results in neither
Intellectual despair results in neither weakness nor dreams, but in violence. It is only a matter of knowing how to give vent to one's rage; whether one only wants to wander like madmen around prisons, or whether one wants to overturn them.
Crime succeeds by sudden despatch;
Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.
One of the many lessons that one learns
One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.
The power of punishment is to silence,
The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.
To trial bring her stolen charms, and
To trial bring her stolen charms, and let her prison be my arms.
Hanging was the worst use a man could be
Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.
On average, drug prisoners spend more
On average, drug prisoners spend more time in federal prison than rapists, who often get out on early release because of the overcrowding in prison caused by the Drug War.
I was in prison, and you came unto me.
I was in prison, and you came unto me. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
~(Jesus Christ) Matthew 25:36, 40
