The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
It is the deed that teaches, not the name we give it. Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another, but similars that breed their own kind.
No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
Justice is justice though it's always delayed and finally done only by mistake.
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.
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.
The number of laws is constantly growing in all countries and, owing to this, what is called crime is very often not a crime at all, for it contains no element of violence or harm.
Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a God.
The public have more interest in the punishment of an injury than he who receives it.
The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
Forgiveness, that noblest of all self-denial, is a virtue which he alone who can practise in himself can willingly believe in another.
To try to raise a son from inside the prison walls is a very difficult thing. But I want to say to the world my son at 16 was the one who tried the most to get me out of prison.
~Jim Bakker
The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.
Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.
Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrist? And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists? And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air? Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.
The mellow sweetness of pumpkin pie off a prison spoon is something you will never forget.
If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.
To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.
One crime is everything; two nothing.
Trial by jury itself, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, shall be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare.
I have been studying how I may compare This prison where I live unto the world; And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it. Yet I'll hammer it out.
