Prison Quotes

“Ultimately, confinement did seek to suppress madness, to eliminate from the social order a figure which did not find its place within it; the essence of confinement was not the exorcism of a danger. Confinement merely manifested what madness, in its essence, was: a manifestation of non-being; and by providing this manifestation, confinement thereby suppressed it, since it restored it to its truth as nothingness. Confinement is the practice which corresponds most exactly to madness experienced as unreason, that is, as the empty negativity of reason; by confinement, madness is acknowledged to be nothing.”
― Foucault Michel, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason

“We are our greatest prison and our worst warden.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“He probably wouldn’t do any jail time at all, not with the perennial War on Drugs in full force. Too many dope smokers and pill poppers to lock up instead.”
― Cliff Jones Jr., Dreck

“Who does not move, does not feel his chains.

Wer sich nicht bewegt, der spürt seine Fesseln nicht.”
― Rosa Luxemburg

“A prison will appear like heaven to those who are in hell.”
― Tamerlan Kuzgov

“Do you suffer from constipation? Ask your doctor if prison is right for you. Nine out of ten dentists recommend.”
― Jarod Kintz, Powdered Saxophone Music

“Proper searching could stop drugs being carried through the gates. In the US and Sweden, where there was proper searching, I had discovered, the drug rates were far lower. But when I shared these suggestions with the ministry drugs team, they were wearily dismissive. 'If you stop drugs coming in one way they will come in another' they said. One said 'You don't want to be like your predecessors, fantasising about how to stop drugs coming in on drones.' My predecessor, it seemed, had suggested flying eagles at the drones.' Liz Truss had stood at the dispatch box and said 'I was at HMP Pentonville last week. They've got patrol dogs who are barking to deter drones.' This, I was told provoked an MP to shoat 'You are barking”
― Rory Stewart, Politics On the Edge: A Memoir From Within

“We are all on Death Row, but some of us are looking at parole”
― Dean Cavanagh, The Painter

“Бывший президент Джеймс Мэдисон, выступая за расширение полномочий государства, обозначенных в конституции, писал, что «состоятельных граждан, которые составляют меньшинство, нужно защищать от большинства».”
― Питер Гелдерлоос, Тюрьма

“My mind is the jail cell from which I cannot escape.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“Hai una routine, un programma orario per ogni parte della vita. Ne hai uno anche per il pensiero? Perché non dici di no? Perché non riesci nemmeno a pensare di dire di no?”
― Marja Aljokhina, Riot days. Una prigionia politica nella Russia di Putin

“Exactly what occurred that day can never be known, only the results. Of the soldiers, not a single man or woman returned to give any account. The seals were placed safely...”
― Robert Jordan, The Strike at Shayol Ghul

“Sometimes While I'm at work I ponder the fact that if I was in prison I would at least be rewarded for good behavior.”
― Anonymous

“Freedom is an essential element for the success and progress of humanity, especially freedom from the restricted imprisonment of certain religions. You never can progress by going backward. Some prisoners have no idea that they are in a prison, because they have been swimming in the same rotten pond for thousands of years. They resist any form of freedom because they fear the freshness of the ocean, they fear freedom. They want to make the whole world a prison, where they will feel comfortable.”
― Debasish Mridha

“Prison is being stuck anywhere that you don’t want to be.”
― Dushawn Banks, True Blue

“A Flock of Geese"
She often wondered
about the inexplicable deep sorrow that she feels
every time she sees a flock of geese flying in the sky …
Do the flying geese remind her that she has wasted her life
stuck in the trivialities of daily life?
Or perhaps the flying birds remind her
that she’s lost her ability to fly?
She thinks at times in sadness
how she wasted the years of her life
like a naïve bride dreaming about the ideal groom...
A bride planning the minutest details of her wedding,
not realizing, until her wings were clipped,
that the wedding, the groom, and the bride
are roles and illusions created by society
to counter the dangers of all those who wish to fly;
those who dream about creating new worlds
instead of getting hanged or strangulated
in a world created on their behalf by others …
As she hears the honking of another passing flock of geese
flying over her head as did the most beautiful years of her life
the birds awaken in her that uncontrollable itch to depart
to refuse the illusion of settling and stability
The illusion of the wedding and the groom
The illusion of all the wedding invitees
Who spend an entire night dancing, cheering, and celebrating
the clipping of her wings…

[Original poem published in Arabic on December 14, 2023 at ahewar.org]”
― Louis Yako”
― Louis Yako

“We can never escape from ourselves, since subjectivity is governed by a most tragic principle, that of self-imprisonment. If being a perpetual prisoner is a terrible condition, how much more grim and horrible will the situation be of a prisoner who is his own jailer.”
― José Ortega y Gasset, Psychological Investigations

“Prison is a gated community as well.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Greed will never build a palace. Rather, it builds a prison. And quite conveniently, it also builds the road that leads directly to the front gate.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Only 344 days left until I’m out of this cage.
Until I’m free.
I’ve been stuck in this gloomy establishment for almost a decade. Crimson Manor in Desdemona Hill, North Carolina―a state hospital for the criminally insane.”
― Dolores Lane, Bloody Fingers & Red Lipstick

“In Faerie, there are no fish sticks, no ketchup, and no television.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Freedom is the cage, and the cage is never freedom.”
― Tamerlan Kuzgov

“Prison thrived on breaking people down and rebuiding them. Maybe it worked for others - bad people. But when you broke down good people, we didn't rise again as even nicer people. No. That's not how it worked. We rose like a dragon, one that would spew fire and burn everything to ash.
We became the depraved.”
― Stacey Marie Brown, Savage Lands

“Since Hexxus's announcement, I had shut down, going into complete denial. A few weeks in and I had already been beaten up, had my blanket stolen - fuck that bitch - got attacked in the shower, put in the hole, had to flagellate another inmate who wanted to protect me, and now put in line for the Games.
Games in which no one survived for long.
Let's say my review of this place would be abysmal.”
― Stacey Marie Brown, Savage Lands

“Give them glory in your death or in your killing". The guard's sentiment halted me for a moment, my gaze snapping to the fae. For the first time, I really noticed him.
The horse-shifter, Zander, stood there, his chocolate brown eyes staring into mine. "Let their energy and your fear feed you, not starve you." His gaze remained intensely on me. Meaningful. "Use your head, find weapons in anything. Be the one who prevails.”
― Stacey Marie Brown, Savage Lands

“Maya Angelou spoke of why the caged bird sings and of the courage it takes for literature to crush racism and face trauma. Angelou said the caged bird sings when his wing is bruised and he beats his bars to be free, here’s hoping that every cage be broken through and every bruised wing be healed by the joy of freedom so that it could soar. There are no gardens in prison for the poet to see yet his words make the cage bloom.”
― Aysha Taryam

“And he dreaded prison more than anything, not because survival in the gourbis was any
better, but because nothing would be more humiliating than being labeled a criminal. He had inherited a sense of honour that gave him – he, the poorest of the poor – the pride of a blind man and the humility of a prince.”
― Sima Samar, Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan

“And he dreaded prison more than anything, not because survival in the gourbis was any
better, but because nothing would be more humiliating than being labeled a criminal. He had inherited a sense of honour that gave him – he, the poorest of the poor – the pride of a blind man and the humility of a prince.”
― Xavier Le Clerc, Un homme sans titre

“For every login to hell, there exists a logout to hope”
― Alberto Daniel Hill, LOGIN TO HELL: FINAL EDITION - BLACK X-TENDED

“It's a shithole but at least I can get a decent brew.' How very British, I thought to myself.”
― Kerry Daynes, The Dark Side of the Mind: True Stories from My Life as a Forensic Psychologist