“In prison I had the opportunity to debate and discuss people that had subscribed to all forms of Islamism.” PeopleFormOpportunityPrisonDebate Author:Maajid Nawaz
“I had the assassins of the former president of Egypt, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood was with me in prison, the leaders of my own former group Hizb ut-Tahrir were with me in prison and so by the time I was released at the age of 28, I wasn't the man who went in at 24.” MenAgePresidentMy OwnLeaderGroupsHe ManPrisonFormerBrotherhoodEgyptAssassinsMuslim Brotherhood Author:Maajid Nawaz
“The occupation is really terrible on a variety of levels. It's terrible on the "shooting people and torturing people in prison" level. But I think the thing that is very hard to convey is that it's also this bureaucratic grinding-down and daily humiliation that I think would probably be as horrible as the spectacular violence.” PeopleThinkingHardLevelsViolenceTerribleDown AndPrisonHorribleVarietyShootingOccupationHumiliationSpectacular Author:Molly Crabapple
“The thing is, Guantánamo is also a naval base, and they're under the delusion - especially the people on the naval side who are not dealing with the prison - that they can just pretend this is an ordinary Caribbean naval base. For them, it's: "Why are you making such a big deal out of the most notorious prison in the world?" It's like if people living near Buchenwald said they wanted to talk about the other lovely things in the region besides the camp.” PeopleIfsWorldSaidBigsWantedSidesDealsOrdinaryPrisonLovelyDelusionRegionsCampsBig DealCaribbeanNavalNotoriousLovely ThingsBuchenwald Author:Molly Crabapple
“Galway Kinnell came out with that wonderful big, breathy, hollow voice of his and read, for the first time in public, "The Bear." That poem impressed me so much that I memorized it. I used it for years when I taught in prisons. It's a powerful extended metaphor for what the writing life is really all about. It's a uniquely powerful poem about self-transformation, and that's what we're asking, really, beyond even our objection to the war. We're asking people to look at themselves and think about what might be possible with a little self-transformation.” PeopleThinkingWritingYearsFirstsLooksLittlesWarSelfBigsMightLife IsUsedVoicePowerfulWonderfulTaughtBearsFirst TimeTransformationAskingPrisonMetaphorImpressedWriting LifeHollowObjectionsSelf Transformation Author:Sam Hamill
“What would happen if we financed somebody in the U.S. to destabilize the government of George W. Bush? They would go to prison, certainly.” IfsGovernmentHappensPrison Author:Hugo Chavez
“Jason Rezaian is finally headed home. He's the correspondent for The Washington Post who was held in Iran for a year and half while U.S. diplomats, his family and his editors worked to win his release. Rezaian was one of the four Americans released from prison in Tehran in a swap for seven Iranians held in U.S. prisons.” YearsHomeWinningHalfFourPrisonSevenReleasePostsIranEditorsJasonDiplomatsTehran Author:Renee Montagne
“OK, so $1 trillion is what it costs to run the federal government for one year. So this money's going to run through September of 2016. Half of the trillion dollars goes to defense spending and the Pentagon. The other half goes to domestic spending - everything from prisons to parks. So there's also about 74 billion in there that goes to the military operations that we have ongoing in Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria.” YearsGovernmentRunningHalfMilitaryCostDollarsPrisonIraqSpendingDefenseBillionsOperationsParksAfghanistanSeptemberSyriaFederal GovernmentOngoingOther HalfPentagonMilitary OperationsDefense Spending Author:Susan Davis
“I was literally living on the edge of life, to the point where I didn't know what was going to happen, not caring, taking chances and finally landing in prison and once there, all my lines were cut.” KnowsHappensLinesChanceCuttingPrisonEdgesCaringTake A ChanceLiving OnLandingNot CaringLiving On The Edge Author:Christian Hosoi
“I'd gotten to the place where I wanted to quit using drugs but couldn't and finally I landed in that prison cell where everything was cut.” WantedCuttingDrugPrisonQuittingCellsPrison Cells Author:Christian Hosoi
“Two weeks after the arrested I was on the phone with my wife and we said a prayer and I was crying and just so happy, I can't even explain it. It was euphoric. People said I went from freedom my whole life to prison, but in reality, I went from imprisonment and bondage of sin and death my whole life, to finding freedom in a prison cell.” PeopleSaidI CanTwoWholeRealityPrayerSinWifeWeekCryFindingsPrisonPhonesMy WifeWhole LifeCellsBondageArrestedTwo WeeksImprisonmentEuphoricPrison Cells Author:Christian Hosoi
“I spent five years in prison, a free man for the first time in my whole life.” MenYearsFirstsWholeFiveFirst TimePrisonWhole LifeFive YearsFree Man Author:Christian Hosoi
“Who would have ever thought I'd find love, contentment and joy in a prison cell, but I did. I knew that I knew that I knew that day, I'd been released, and I thought to myself, "I need to tell everyone about this" because no one had ever told me.” NeedsJoyPrisonCellsContentmentFinding LovePrison Cells Author:Christian Hosoi
“When I was released from prison everybody thought I'd go back to doing the same things I did before, but I had no desire to do any of that anymore. That stuff steals, kills, and destroys your life and robs you of all the blessings that God has for you.” DesireStuffBlessingPrisonStealing Author:Christian Hosoi
“Basically, "Making a Murderer" chronicles a set of crimes committed in Wisconsin: Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The first crime is a miscarriage of justice. Steven Avery is convicted and sentenced to a very, very long prison sentence for the assault on a woman. And it comes to light through DNA evidence that he was not the assailant.” FirstsLongLightJusticeCrimeEvidencePrisonCommittedSentencesAssaultDnaMurdererWisconsinChroniclesMiscarriageDna Evidence Author:Errol Morris
“Closing the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is a promise President [Barack] Obama made it but has yet to fulfill.” MadePresidentPromisePrisonMade ItBarackClosingCubaPresident Barack ObamaGuantanamoGuantanamo Bay Author:Audie Cornish
“Keeping this facility [Guantanamo prison] open is contrary to our values. It undermines our standing in the world. It is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of rule of law.” WorldLawValuesRecordsHighestStandardsStandingPrisonContraryFacilityRule Of LawStainsGuantanamo Author:Audie Cornish
“Obviously this prison has been controversial ever since the first detainees arrived in Guantanamo more than 14 years ago.” YearsFirstsHas BeensYears AgoPrisonControversialGuantanamoDetainees Author:Audie Cornish
“The most important problem in Iran is that the courts have lost their independence, and they are under the influence of the Ministry of Intelligence and their people. This is why we witness a number of journalists and human rights activists, my colleagues, and a number of feminists, in prison.” PeopleHumansImportantProblemLostNumbersRightsInfluenceIndependenceCourtPrisonHuman RightsFeministWitnessJournalistIranActivistMinistryColleagues Author:Shirin Ebadi
“Nelson Mandela sat in a South African prison for 27 years. He was nonviolent. He negotiated his way out of jail. His honor and suffering of 27 years in a South African prison is really ultimately what brought about the freedom of South Africa. That is nonviolence.” WayYearsSufferingHonorPrisonSouthSatJailNonviolenceSouth AfricaNelson Author:Coretta Scott King
“Just having walked into a prison environment, sat there for two hours, the effect that it had on me. ... I couldn't imagine the effect it would have on a person 24 hours a day. So then I became more intrigued, and we began a correspondence, and I began visiting [Todd Willingham].” PersonsTwoHoursEnvironmentImagineEffectsPrisonSatVisitingIntriguedCorrespondence Author:Elizabeth Gilbert
“In the past I faced assassination attempts. I faced harassment, intimidation and prison due to my bold stand on this issue. But these difficult challenges strengthened my faith; strengthened my belief; and strengthened my commitment and devotion to this cause.” PastBeliefCausesDifficultChallengesIssuesCommitmentPrisonDuesDevotionAssassinationHarassmentIntimidationDifficult Challenges Author:Shahbaz Bhatti
“First, there are some of my readers who only read Hap and Leonard, not the other stuff, and some who don't read Hap and Leonard, but a large percentage are crossover readers. And yes, I did refuse to go to Vietnam and it looked like prison was in my future, but they sent me to the psychiatrist and he gave me a 1-Y, which is unfit for military service essentially.” FirstsStuffMilitaryReaderPrisonRefuseVietnamPercentagesPsychiatristMy FutureMilitary ServiceCrossover Author:Joe R. Lansdale
“I wouldn't choose conscientious objector and I wouldn't go to Canada. I did what Hap did and almost went to prison. I think the threw me a bone as the war was winding down, and I think they accepted my sincerity for being against that war.” ThinkingWarDown AndPrisonBonesAcceptedCanadaSincerityWinding DownConscientious Objectors Author:Joe R. Lansdale
“It's no surprise that at the same time that American universities have engaged in a serious commitment to diversity, they have been thought-prisons. We are not talking about diversity in any real way. We are talking about brown, black, white versions of the same political ideology.” WayHas BeensRealPoliticalBlackWhiteTalkingSeriousDiversityCommitmentPrisonSurpriseUniversityVersionsIdeologyEngagedBrownNot TalkingBlack WhitePolitical IdeologyAmerican Universities Author:Richard Rodriguez
“I think part of why schizophrenia got linked to civil rights protest in the '60s was because mainstream society was coding threats against the smooth running of the state as insanity and treating it as such, and so as that happens you see the evolution of a process in which people with schizophrenia are increasingly feared and our hospitals, particularly the kind of hospital that I look at in the book become to look more and more like prisons, to the point where many of them including the one I talk about actually become prisons.” PeopleThinkingLooksKindBookStatesHappensRunningProcessRightsEvolutionPrisonThreatIncludingCivil RightsInsanityProtestHospitalsMainstreamSmoothLinkedSchizophreniaMainstream Society Author:Jonathan Michel Metzl
“So more and more black folk tend to be well-adjusted to [Barack] Obama's presidency, but does that mean they're well-adjusted to injustice? Because we don't hear our president talking about the new Jim Crow, the prison-industrial complex.” WellsMeanDoeBlackPresidentTalkingPrisonComplexesInjusticeFolksBarackPresidencyCrowJim Crow Author:Cornel West
“I love the academy in terms of the life of the mind and the world of ideas. I also love the streets. I love the churches and mosques and synagogues. I love the trade union centers. I love the community centers. I speak regularly at prisons and so forth.” WorldMindIdeasSpeakTermCommunityChurchStreetsTradePrisonUnionsAcademyMosquesSynagogueTrade UnionsCommunity Centers Author:Cornel West
“We're talking about a prison-industrial complex. We're talking about a war on drugs that's generating unprecedented levels of incarcerated folk. We're talking about dilapidated housing. We're talking about joblessness and underemployment.” WarLevelsTalkingDrugPrisonComplexesFolksJoblessnessHousingUnprecedentedWar On DrugsUnderemployment Author:Cornel West
“I just don't want the fear from the right to be used by the [Barack] Obama administration to silence critics. We have to be willing to tell the truth because we're trying to speak about conditions that are being rendered invisible in our prisons and schools in the hood and so forth and so on.” WantTryingSchoolUsedSpeakSilenceConditionsWillingTruth IsPrisonCriticsInvisibleAdministrationBarackTelling The TruthHood Author:Cornel West
“There are likable characters in prison. Sometimes the worst criminals are also some of the most charming people.” PeopleSometimesCharacterWorstPrisonCriminalsCharming Author:Taryn Manning
“There's a particular hierarchy in the prison - class distinctions, high-school cliques. You have to learn how to navigate.” SchoolClassParticularHigh SchoolPrisonDistinctionHierarchyNavigateCliqueClass Distinction Author:Laura Prepon
“Nature with her wonders blinds and binds one still. There is no escape. I love her utterly through all time and times. All over the world towns to me are prison; green fields are home.” WorldStillsHomeNatureWonderFieldsTownsGreenPrisonAll TimeGreen Fields Author:Marion Dudley Cran
“I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.” IfsMenSaidStatesWould BeUnitedUnited StatesHappenedCrimePrisonShoesStealingPairsPrisonerThievesSenatorsStolenTheftRailroadsOrganizerPair Of ShoesEconomic InequalityThievery Author:Mother Jones
“All of this is happening because there has still been no reckoning post the financial crisis. So governments have fallen, one bloke has been to prison, the banks have gone pretty well back to status quo, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. And it's fuelling anger. And somehow [Donald] Trump, who represents the worst aspects of capitalism, has persuaded people he can deal with that.” PeopleWellsHas BeensStillsGovernmentPoorDealsGoneRichWorstTrumpHappeningsCapitalismAspectCrisisPrisonFinancialPostsFallenStatus QuoGet RichFinancial CrisisReckoningBlokes Author:Alastair Campbell
“I've written about illegal immigrants in the United States; I spent a year following migrant farm workers as they were harvesting. I've written about our criminal justice system, and how it treats the victims of crime. I've been working for years now on a book about prisons in America, and I've been going into prisons and traveling around the country and seeing what's going on.” YearsBookCountryStatesAmericaJusticeUnitedUnited StatesWrittenSeeingCrimeTreatsVictimPrisonWorkersFollowingCriminalsImmigrantsIllegalFarmsJustice SystemCriminal JusticeMigrantsIllegal ImmigrantsCriminal Justice System Author:Eric Schlosser
“The rage building up, generation after generation, among what has become a permanent underclass in many parts of the world cannot continue. We are desperately undereducating our children. In the United States, we are turning prison-building into the single largest urban industry. These are like toxic chemical factors any one of which could cause a raging fire. God help us if they begin to interact.” IfsWorldChildrenStatesHelpingCausesUnitedUnited StatesFireGenerationsBuildingIndustryOur ChildrenPrisonRageFactorsPermanentChemicalsToxicUrbanGod HelpBuilding UpGod Help UsToxic Chemicals Author:Marianne Williamson
“I would like to say prison life at its very best and worst infinitely sucks.” WorstPrisonPrison Life Author:Leonard Peltier
“We have over the years proven again and again that every piece of evidence used to convict me has been false. The FBI with its unlimited resources has done everything it possibly can to keep me in prison.” YearsHas BeensDoneUsedPiecesEvidenceResourcesPrisonAgain And AgainProvenUnlimitedFbiConvicts Author:Leonard Peltier
“Actually, one Anthem cue is a good example of the process. There is a four-minute sequence of music in Anthem, which underscores a prison sequence, and it lines up with five different, smaller scenes within one large scene.” DifferentProcessLinesFiveFourMinutesExampleScenePrisonSequenceGood ExamplesAnthem Author:Jeff Britting
“Some people may argue that if the animals are treated humanely prior to being slaughtered, this justifies their confinement and slaughter. Is it ethical to rob beings of their freedom but give them a comfortable prison and provide them with food until they become fat enough to be slaughtered? Any way you look at it, farms are places where animals are kept in preparation to be slaughtered and ultimately eaten as food.” PeopleIfsWayGivingLooksMayEnoughAnimalComfortablePrisonArguingTreatedFatsPreparationJustifyEthicalFarmsSlaughterConfinement Author:Sharon Gannon
“Incarceration has become a business. It is in the interest of the police and the prisons to keep locking people up.” PeopleInterestPolicePrisonIncarceration Author:Sam Branson
“What I'm really trying to say is that I believed an armed insurrection could work. After I was shot and went to prison, that ended that illusion. I had time to think.” ThinkingTryingIllusionShotsPrisonTime To ThinkInsurrection Author:Huey Newton
“I had a lot of time and the first year I was in prison, I tried to get the party to stop the shooting, to stop the talk about the gun thing.” YearsFirstsPartyGunPrisonShooting Author:Huey Newton
“When one in three Black men are in prison, those larger systemic injustices become a part of what it means to love our neighbor as ourself. We care about dismantling institutional racism. That begins in relationships when you see injustice happen.” MenMeanHappensCareThreeBlackRacismPrisonInjusticeNeighborInstitutional Racism Author:Shane Claiborne
“Just plain logic says that the war on drugs does not work. It absolutely does not work. We have this highly addictive legal drug called tobacco which has never resulted in people being sent to prison, but there has been a massive reduction in its consumption simply because responsible adults looking at their own bodies have said they don't want to do that to themselves.” PeopleWantDoeHas BeensSaidWarBodyDrugAdultsLogicResponsiblePrisonMassiveWorking ItConsumptionTobaccoReductionWar On Drugs Author:Graham Hancock
“At the end of the elementary program, I then had to move onto high school. Simultaneously, my parents moved to Attica to a suburban area not far from the well-known Attica State Prison. Then I would take the school bus which was a very short distance away, where I was involved with a much larger community.” WellsEndsStatesSchoolMovingParentCommunityKnownInvolvedHigh SchoolAreasProgramMovedDistancePrisonBusWell KnownSchool Bus Author:Paul Smith
“Often, one discovery leads to interest in another. After the Dauphin's heart had undergone DNA testing and was placed in the crypt at St. Denis, I think people wanted some closure to the story about the fate of the royal couple's only child who survived the gruesome Temple Prison. I know I did.” PeopleThinkingKnowsHeartChildrenStoriesWantedInterestFateCoupleDiscoveryPrisonTemplesSurvivedRoyalDnaTestingClosureOnly Child Author:Susan Nagel