Bernard Hopkins Quotes

Prison has a universal fascination. It's a real-life horror story because, given the right set of circumstances, anyone could find themselves behind bars.

Yeah, I've gotten a few letters from prison.

I get a lot of letters from prisoners. They say things you can't imagine.

I was gladly cuffed, shackled, loaded into the caged bus and driven through the main gate of Bare Hill Correctional Facility for what I pray to God will be forever.

I've never been in prison. I've been in jail a lot. But I've never actually been sentenced to anything.

None of my peers avoided prison. None of 'em.

I got mail from a prison once.

As a law-enforcement official, as a politician, you are always going to have in the back of your mind the fear that someone you release will end up committing another crime, potentially a serious crime, during a period when they otherwise would have been incarcerated.

I know prisons from the inside.

I grew to manhood in the Ohio State Penitentiary.

My occupation now, I suppose, is jail inmate.

So for you people who are filled with fear that I might someday be released: breathe easy, I don't see it happening.

Maybe I won't stay out of prison. Who knows?

Jails and prisons are the complement of schools; so many less as you have of the latter, so many more must you have of the former.

In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available... in America right now.

A far greater factor than abolishing poverty is the deterrent effect of swift and certain consequences: swift arrest, prompt trial, certain penalty and - at some point - finality of judgment.

I've worked in the prison system for five years, and most of those folks in prison didn't have a direction.

I've definitely become more aware of the penal system and more aware of what life could be like inside a prison.

We're recycling very dangerous criminals over and over again.

Any politician who wants to eliminate parole just doesn’t understand law enforcement.

The United States imprisons many non-violent offenders who could instead be required to pay fines, perform community service, and make restitution to their victims… Maintaining our vast network of prisons consumes resources that could be better spent on education and other crime prevention efforts... Rather than reforming offenders, prison too often degrades and dehumanizes prisoners, making the task of rehabilitation and reentry into society even more difficult.

All the former prisoners are now the government.

In the long run, a flexible sentencing procedure which works to rehabilitate offenders offers the best hope in the majority of cases in the Federal courts.

Almost one in three Americans has had some contact with the criminal justice system. When you reach that saturation point, people begin to understand, in a very visceral way, the difficulties of reentry.