Prison continues, on those who are entrusted to it, a work begun elsewhere, which the whole of society pursues on each individual through innumerable mechanisms of discipline.
No man survives when freedom fails. The best men rot in filthy jails, and those who cry 'appease, appease' are hanged by those they tried to please.
The best situation of all, and one frequently utilized, is for jails and prisons to allow volunteer ministers of all faiths to enter prisons and offer their services to the inmates who want them. That way, the religious needs of inmates are met but without government funds being spent.
The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.
Experts and the educated elite have replaced what worked with what sounded good. Society was far more civilized before they took over our schools, prisons, welfare programs, police departments and courts. It's high time we ran these people out of our lives and went back to common sense.
I have never been contained except I made the prison.
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.
While we have prisons it matters little which of us occupy the cells.
The public have more interest in the punishment of an injury than he who receives it.
The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.
A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.
The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.
To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.
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.
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
We who live in prison, and in whose lives there is no event but sorrow, have to measure time by throbs of pain, and the record of bitter moments.
As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?
We don't seem to be able to check crime, so why not legalize it and then tax it out of business.
The punishment can be remitted; the crime is everlasting.
If we look at Houston, which is a very environmentally toxic place, we find that it has one of the highest levels of young men going to prison and also among the highest levels of illiteracy in the country.
Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.
Man is condemned to be free.
