Fast closed with double grills And triple gates–the cell To wicked souls is hell; But to a mind that's innocent 'Tis only iron, wood and stone.
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?
Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger.
Corporal punishment falls far more heavily than most weighty pecuniary penalty.
Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.
In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.
Well does Heaven have care that no man secures happiness by crime.
The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
Do not lay on the multitude the blame that is due to a few.
Vices are not crimes.
Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.
By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere.
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.
No obligation to justice does force a man to be cruel, or to use the sharpest sentence.
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.
The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime can be prevented, which is almost as dubious as the notion that poverty can be prevented.
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.
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.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.
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.
The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.
