When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
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.
To seek the redress of grievances by going to law, is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble bush.
Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.
The contagion of crime is like that of the plague. Criminals collected together corrupt each other; they are worse than ever when at the termination of their punishment they re-enter society.
It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not between states nor between social classes nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts. And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life.
What is crime amongst the multitude, is only vice among the few.
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.
We shall not yield to violence. We shall not be deprived of union freedoms. We shall never agree with sending people to prison for their convictions.
The public have more interest in the punishment of an injury than he who receives it.
While crime is punished it yet increases.
The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.
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.
Prison makes you a better judge of character. You pick up on people much faster.
Do not lay on the multitude the blame that is due to a few.
The worst prison is not of stone. It is of a throbbing heart, outraged by an infamous life.
Most people fancy themselves innocent of those crimes of which they cannot be convicted.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
There is no greater punishment of wickedness that that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.
If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.
It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.
The uneven impact of actual enforcement measures tends to mirror and reinforce more general patterns of discrimination (along socioeconomic, racial and ethnic, sexual, and perhaps generational lines) within the society. As a consequence, such enforcement (ineffective as it may be in producing conformity) almost certainly reinforces feelings of alienation already prevalent within major segments of the population.
Reality becomes a prison to those who can’t get out of it.
