{"quotes":[{"text":"The prison inspector and the warders, though they had never understood or gone into the meaning of these dogmas and of all that went on in church, believed that they must believe, because the higher authorities and the Tsar himself believed in it. Besides, though faintly (and themselves unable to explain why), they felt that this faith defended their cruel occupations. If this faith did not exist it would have been more difficult, perhaps impossible, for them to use all their powers to torment people, as they were now doing, with a quiet conscience. The inspector was such a kind-hearted man that he could not have lived as he was now living unsupported by his faith.","author":"Leo Tolstoy","tags":["dogma","faith","human-nature","incarceration"],"id":5863,"author_id":"Leo+Tolstoy"},{"text":"[C]ritics of Canadian securities regulators sometimes point out that a number of high-profile US securities cases have resulted in prison sentences for the offenders, while incarceration for Canadian securities law violators seems very rare...[A]s has often been noted, incarceration is far more frequent in the United States for crimes of all kinds, yet it is not usually suggested that this is proof that the United States is generally a safer place to live than Canada.","author":"Paul Halpern","tags":["crime","finance","incarceration","safety"],"id":17413,"author_id":"Paul+Halpern"},{"text":"I understand now that the only time black people don't feel guilty is when we've actually done something wrong, because that relieves us of the cognitive dissonance of being black and innocent, and in a way the prospect of going to jail becomes a relief.","author":"Paul Beatty","tags":["african-americans","blacks","guilt","incarceration","innocence","jail","justice","justice-system","prison","race-relations"],"id":25037,"author_id":"Paul+Beatty"},{"text":"Prison is designed to break one's spirit and destroy one's resolve. To do this, the authorities attempt to exploit every weakness, demolish every initiative, negate all signs of individuality--all with the idea of stamping out that spark that makes each of us human and each of us who we are.","author":"Nelson Mandela","tags":["incarceration","prison","prison-life","prisoners"],"id":26934,"author_id":"Nelson+Mandela"},{"text":"I am convinced that imprisonment is a way of pretending to solve the problem of crime. It does nothing for the victims of crime, but perpetuates the idea of retribution, thus maintaining the endless cycle of violence in our culture. It is a cruel and useless substitute for the elimination of those conditions--poverty, unemployment, homelessness, desperation, racism, greed--which are at the root of most punished crime. The crimes of the rich and powerful go mostly unpunished.It must surely be a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit that even a small number of those men and women in the hell of the prison system survive it and hold on to their humanity.","author":"Howard Zinn","tags":["crimes","criminal-justice-system","cycle-of-violence","desperation","greed","homelessness","imprisonment","incarceration","jail","justice","poverty","prison","punishment","racism","retribution","unemployment"],"id":66537,"author_id":"Howard+Zinn"},{"text":"I would suggest that the prisons I incessantly create are not designed to lock me in, rather they are designed to lock the world out. And the oddity is that either way, I am a prisoner who has sentenced himself to a prison within which I do not belong.","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["fear","fearful","hiding","imprisonment","incarcerate","incarceration","isolate","isolation","lock","panic","prison","protect","protection","recluse","retreat","seclude","shelter","withdraw","withdrawn","world"],"id":117388,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"},{"text":"If a deadly snake slithering around in a pre-school bit a child, would you box it up for a month as punishment, and then release it to prey upon the children once again?","author":"Edward M. Wolfe","tags":["crime","criminology","incarceration","social-issues"],"id":156924,"author_id":"Edward+M.+Wolfe"},{"text":"The real purpose of the opposition is to minimize the amount of money the ruling party will have stolen from the people at the end of its term.","author":"Mokokoma Mokhonoana","tags":["aphorism","aphorisms","argument","arguments","arrest","corruption","crime","debate","democracy","dialogue","discourse","discussion","election","elections","felony","funny","humor","humour","incarceration","jail","kleptocracy","money","opposition","parliament","party","politics","prison","of-the-day","quoteoftheday","ruling-party","satire","the-opposition","theft","vote","voter","voters","while-collar"],"id":167752,"author_id":"Mokokoma+Mokhonoana"},{"text":"Is it possible that my walls are specifically erected and intentionally reinforced out of the fear that God calls me to an existence without walls? And if this is so, do I realize that I am the warden of prison that I created in which I myself am the prisoner?","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["bondage","captive","fear","fearful","free","freedom","frightened","god","incarcerated","incarceration","liberation","prison","prisoner","walls","warden"],"id":184617,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"},{"text":"As a society, our decision to heap shame and contempt upon those who struggle and fail in a system designed to keep them locked up and locked out says far more about ourselves than it does about them.","author":"Michelle Alexander","tags":["contempt","incarceration","prison","shame"],"id":214296,"author_id":"Michelle+Alexander"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":20,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}