“Hard to imagine 40 years ago people could be convicted of a crime, fined, sent to prison for using the most common forms of birth control.” PeopleYearsHardFormCommonImagineCrimeBirthYears AgoPrisonBirth Control Author:Dick Durbin
“Are you ready to step out of the prison of memory and conditioned responses into the experience of freedom? If so, then observe your addictive behaviors without judgment.” IfsMemoriesStepsReadyBehaviorJudgmentPrisonResponse Author:Deepak Chopra
“We're spending, on average, three times more for prison than for public-school pupils. That's the dumbest investment policy. It doesn't make us safer.” SchoolThreePolicyPrisonInvestmentAverageSpendingThree TimesPublic SchoolPupils Author:Marian Wright Edelman
“The literacy level at Mississippi prisons? Fifth grade. Can't read, what are you going to do? If you've got a conviction rap, what are you going to do? It's a real crisis.” IfsRealLevelsCrisisPrisonConvictionRapGradesLiteracyFifthMississippiFifth Grade Author:Marian Wright Edelman
“You can continue your practice, you can exercise kindness, you can practice meditation whether you're in a prison or a millionaire's house, whether you're in India or Tibet.” HousePracticeKindnessMeditationExerciseIndiaPrisonMillionaireTibet Author:Pico Iyer
“Sensitivity is equated with weakness. Feelings are for women. It's OK to express happiness or anger, but it's not OK to feel fear or sadness. This gets exaggerated in prison.” FeelsFeelingsSadnessWeaknessPrisonSensitivityExaggerated Author:James Fox
“I'm not fearful by nature, but I am vigilant. When you walk into a prison, it's important that a sixth sense kicks in.” ImportantWalksPrisonKicksFearfulVigilantSixth Sense Author:James Fox
“Since the late 1970's, the main focus of prisons has been punishment, not rehabilitation. It's hard to believe, but you would be hard-pressed to find a meaningful violence-prevention class in a federal or state penitentiary. And 'we the people' are footing the bill to keep these folks imprisoned. It costs on average $46,000 a year to keep an adult incarcerated in California and about the same for New York State.” PeopleYearsBelieveHas BeensHardStatesWould BeClassFocusViolenceNew YorkCostLateAdultsBillsPrisonAverageFolksMeaningfulPunishmentCaliforniaPreventionRehabilitationHard To BelieveNew York State Author:James Fox
“On average, drug prisoners spend more time in federal prison than rapists, who often get out on early release because of the overcrowding in prison caused by the Drug War.” WarHumorDrugPrisonAverageAlcoholReleaseMore TimePrisonerAlcoholicsWar On DrugsDrug ProhibitionOvercrowding Author:Michael Badnarik
“I know the American Library Association has models for working with the poor. They do have that, and I think that we really need to put our efforts - if we want to think long-range and invest in the community so that we don't have to, you know, invest in prisons - into making a change, because I know that the library can make a change in a life, because it made a change in mine.” IfsThinkingKnowsWantNeedsLongMadeCommunityPoorEffortMinesModelsPrisonLibraryRangeAssociationMaking Changes Author:Sandra Cisneros
“Whether I'm feeding the homeless, stopping by a high school to chat with teens, visiting a prison or local jail, I think that the greatest service you can give is yourself. To be able to help someone who is not in a position to help themselves or possibly ever repay you.” ThinkingGivingHelpingAbleSchoolPositionHigh SchoolPrisonLocalsJailTeensHomelessStoppingFeedingVisiting Author:Raheem Devaughn
“I'm feeling pretty good. A lot of people don't know this, but I am not currently in prison, which feels great.” PeopleKnowsFeelsFeelingsPrisonFeeling Pretty Author:Misha Collins
“I think it's very important. I've gone into prisons to meditate with inmates. It's something I plan to do with Tim Robbins soon.” ThinkingImportantGonePlansPrisonInmates Author:Russell Simmons
“I went to the graduation the other night of my first great grandchild - he's 21 or 22; and right at the graduation I looked, and 92 percent of those who graduated at the University of Illinois were females. Where can a Black female, who are now the lawyers, the engineers; they are the ones graduating with top degrees; where will they find in a Black male a counterpart that is equal to them? We are filling the jails, we are filling the prisons.” FirstsNightBlackEqualDegreesPercentFemalePrisonMalesUniversityLawyerJailGraduatesEngineersGrandchildrenFillingCounterpartsIllinoisGreat GrandchildrenBlack Males Author:Louis Farrakhan
“I think it [Brexit] is wonderful.We've got to decide in this country who we are.We made a momentous decision.It's a bit like a prison break.” ThinkingMadeCountryBitsDecisionBreakWonderfulPrisonWho We ArePrison Break Author:Rupert Murdoch
“Also because few people were watching - aside from a healthy amount of incarcerated people, because M2 was offered in a lot of prisons - I was able to ask really long, kind of muso questions, that they loved. We could really geek out and talk about music for long periods of time, and that tape would just keep rolling and rolling.” PeopleKindLongAbleAsksAmountPeriodsHealthyPrisonTapeRollingGeekLong Periods Of TimeReally Long Author:Jancee Dunn
“You have Hillary Clinton who has called black teens or black kids super predators, you have Donald Trump who's openly racist. We have a presidential candidate who has deleted emails and done things illegally and is a presidential candidate. That doesn't make sense to me because if that was any other person you'd be in prison.” IfsPersonsDoneKidsBlackTrumpPrisonClintonMake SensePresidentialCandidatesRacistTeensEmailPredatorPresidential Candidate Author:Colin Kaepernick
“Little information is published on prisons, it is one of the hidden regions of our social system, one of the dark zones of our life.” LittlesSocialDarkOur LivesInformationPrisonZoneRegionsSocial Systems Author:Michel Foucault
“The war on drugs causes other supplemental crimes to take place because of the original illegality of it. But then again, that's the other reason that they're fighting it is the corporate prisons they have now. Because they've privatized all our prisons, corporations have to make money, and the only way they can make money is, I believe, the prisons have to be at least 80-90 percent full. That's why the United States - which is home of the brave, land of the free - we have more people in prison than any other country in the world.” PeopleWorldWayBelieveWarCountryStatesReasonHomeFightingI BelieveCausesUnitedUnited StatesLandCrimeDrugPercentOriginalsPrisonBraveMaking MoneyCorporateCorporationsOther CountriesWar On DrugsLand Of The Free Author:Jesse Ventura
“That's why you need the war on drugs to put all these pot smokers in prison so that the prisons remain full and the corporations remain profitable. It's a slippery slope.” NeedsWarDrugPrisonCorporationsPotProfitableWar On DrugsSlipperySlopesSmokersSlippery Slope Author:Jesse Ventura
“Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.” VirtueTreePrisonStrikesWickedPerfumePardonSandals Author:Saadi
“Punishment, that is the justice for the unjust.” JusticePrisonPunishmentUnjust Author:Saint Augustine
“If we continue as we have for the past 20 years in California, in the year 2020, everybody in the State will either be in prison or running one.” IfsYearsStatesRunningPastPrisonCalifornia Author:James Gray
“I have a company where I'm trying to get projects off the ground. Me and my partner Madeleine Sackler, we just shot our first feature in a maximum security prison where about 95% of the cast were incarcerated men. We're editing that and there's a doc going with it.” MenTryingFirstsCompanySecurityProjectsShotsPrisonCastsPartnersFeaturesEditingMaximumMadeleines Author:Boyd Holbrook
“The Department of Justice has become a de-facto legal arm for Muslim Brotherhood groups. I mean, they are suing towns, they are suing schools, they are suing prisons, really to impose the Shariah.” MeanSchoolJusticeGroupsArmsTownsPrisonDepartmentBrotherhoodSuingMuslim Brotherhood Author:Pamela Geller
“If I and other whistleblowers are sentenced to long years in prison without so much as a chance to explain our motivations to a jury, it will have a deeply chilling effect on future whistleblowers working as I did to expose government abuse and overreach. It will chill speech. It will corrode the quality of our democracy.” IfsYearsLongGovernmentMotivationChanceQualityDemocracyEffectsSpeechAbusePrisonChillJuryWhistleblowers Author:Edward Snowden
“We see the corrupt prison system, we see the corrupt police system, we see the corruption in the government, from the top on down. You know, it's built based on lies. However, the marijuana industry itself, because it was an underground industry, showed us the way we could exist on this planet.” KnowsWayGovernmentLyingPlanetsIndustryBuiltPolicePrisonCorruptionMarijuanaPrison System Author:Tommy Chong
“Morality has in the past made progress when we broadened the category of things we weren't permitted to harm (animals, 'infidels'); saw through some delusions and rationalisations about what harms are good for people themselves (prison punishment, hysterectomies for unhappy 1950s wives); and readjusted our for-the-good of others criteria so as to demand only reasonable sacrifices (ceasing to use children as handy chimney sweeps).” PeopleChildrenMadeUsePastAnimalSawsWifeProgressSacrificeMoralityDemandPrisonHarmPunishmentUnhappyReasonableDelusionCategoriesCriteriaHandyInfidelChimneysHysterectomyChimney Sweeps Author:Catherine Wilson
“You shouldn't have a profit motivation to fill prison cells with young Americans.” YoungMotivationPrisonProfitCellsPrison Cells Author:Hillary Clinton
“We need to have more second chance programs. I'm glad that we're ending private prisons in the federal system; I want to see them ended in the state system.” WantNeedsStatesChanceProgramPrisonGladSecond ChancePrivate Prisons Author:Hillary Clinton
“This is sort of the epitome of the economic elite that is converging with a political elite. It's not only the banks and insurance companies. It's the war industry and private prisons. Certainly the fossil fuel agencies. It's not only that they're supporting this campaign, they're supporters of the Clinton Foundation. And where the Clinton Foundation ends and Hillary's [Clinton] political actions begin, that too is quite troubling.” WarEndsActionPoliticalCompanyEconomicIndustryFoundationPrisonClintonCampaignsAgencyFuelElitesSupporterFossilsFossil FuelInsurance CompaniesEpitomePolitical ActionPrivate Prisons Author:Jill Stein
“Most of us think prison is a place where bad people go - which is what I thought for a long time - until you really start to look inside the system and you see, this is not right.” PeopleThinkingLooksLongLong TimePrisonBad People Author:Ava DuVernay
“By the end of the documentary [ '13th'], you really understand what prison is, what the prison industrial complex is, where this whole Black Lives Matter movement comes from, the history of resistance, the history of how politicians have used criminality over the decades for a particular political gain. It's to give people an understanding of it so they can make their own decisions about how they want to be in the world.” PeopleWorldWantGivingEndsMatterWholePoliticalUsedUnderstandingBlackDecisionMovementParticularPoliticianGainsPrisonComplexesDecadesResistanceDocumentariesBlack Lives MatterCriminalityBlack Lives Author:Ava DuVernay
“I've been involved in activities with other people who were put in jail. We were protesting the closing of the prison farm program at the prison I used in a previous book, Alias Grace. Some of us also put up money in order to save the heirloom herd of cows there. So I own half a cow!” PeopleBookUsedOrderHalfGraceInvolvedActivityProgramPrisonJailFarmsCowsClosingHerdsHeirloomsAliases Author:Margaret Atwood
“I was wondering why I was put in prison for working in an African language when I had not been put in prison for working in English. So really, in prison I started thinking more seriously about the relation between language and power.” ThinkingLanguageWonderRelationPrisonLanguage And Power Author:Ngugi wa Thiong'o
“For me, being in prison writing in an African language was a way of saying: "Even if you put me in prison, I will keep on writing in the language which made you put me in prison."” IfsWayWritingMadeLanguagePrison Author:Ngugi wa Thiong'o
“If you look at Cuba what's the benefit in being in Cuba? Really? It's almost like being in prison. You can't think. You can't have your own opinions. You have no opportunity. You just gotta live life the way you were born into it.” IfsThinkingWayLooksOpportunityBornOpinionBenefitsPrisonLive LifeCuba Author:Pitbull
“One of the most recent things we did [in Perceval Press] is a reissue of a fantastic documentary about Russian prison tattoo culture by Alix Lambert called The Mark of Cain. We've done books from Twilight of Empire, that actually has forewords by Howard Zinn and Dennis Kucinich and others, to books of poetry, photography, painting - all kinds of books.” KindBookDoneCulturePaintingPhotographyMarkPressesPrisonAll KindsFantasticEmpiresTwilightTattooDocumentariesCain Author:Viggo Mortensen
“They transfer the prison, and all of a sudden all this money cuts loose, all these people cut loose.” PeopleCuttingPrisonTransfers Author:Janis Karpinski
“'The prison' begins well before its doors. It begins as soon as you leave your house - and even before.” WellsHouseDoorsPrison Author:Michel Foucault
“One in three young African American men is currently under the control of the criminal justice system in prison, in jail, on probation, or on parole - yet mass incarceration tends to be categorized as a criminal justice issue as opposed to a racial justice or civil rights issue (or crisis).” MenYoungThreeJusticeIssuesRightsMassCrisisPrisonCriminalsCivil RightsAfrican AmericanJailJustice SystemCriminal JusticeIncarcerationParoleCriminal Justice SystemRacial JusticeMass IncarcerationProbation Author:Michelle Alexander
“We have a number of brothers left in the prisons, about 15 of them. And for the most part, they're in bad condition. Most of us are getting older, you know. I believe all of them is 60 years or older. They've been in prison for long periods of time. Many of them should have never been in prison at all. They were framed and illegally convicted.” KnowsShouldYearsBelieveLongLeftI BelieveNumbersConditionsBrotherPeriodsShould HavePrisonGetting OldGetting OlderFramedLong Periods Of Time Author:Sekou Odinga
“All my friends and family are either in prison or don't make enough money. I don't know what the president really does. I haven't been able to experience that kind of shift yet.” KnowsKindDoeEnoughAblePresidentHavensMy FriendsPrisonFamily And Friends Author:Vince Staples
“I had many dolls. And you know how I played with them? By performing insurrections, assemblies, scenes of arrest. My dolls were almost never babies to be nursed but men and women who attacked barracks and ended up in prison.” KnowsMenKnow HowBabySceneMen And WomenPrisonPerformingDollsAssemblyInsurrection Author:Indira Gandhi
“You do not have to go to either criminalizing and throwing people in prison. I don't think you should do that for people who are using any drugs. I think they absolutely need treatment.” PeopleThinkingNeedsShouldDrugPrisonTreatmentThrowing Author:Kevin Sabet
“Hillary Clinton continues to say Donald Trump's unacceptable, he doesn't have the character to be president. He is saying - continues saying she needs to be in prison.” NeedsCharacterPresidentTrumpPrisonClinton Author:David Brooks
“I certainly didn't emerge from prison regretting anything I ever wrote, nor did I feel remorse for my crime in the least.” FeelsCrimeRegretPrisonRemorse Author:Jim Goad
“I have spent six years in prison, the last six years. Even if I was outside the prison, how much actual space was there for an investigative journalist to do his work in Iran? But I know one thing for sure: That we, the Iranian people, are much more in line of danger than the West.” PeopleIfsKnowsYearsLastsLinesSpaceOne ThingDangerSixPrisonWestJournalistIranIranian Author:Akbar Ganji
“Why did the regime put me in prison in the first place? I was put in prison for six years and it has been all illegal.” YearsFirstsHas BeensSixPrisonIllegalRegimes Author:Akbar Ganji