Judy Sheindlin Quotes

It is the crime not the scaffold which is the disgrace.

You will feel the full force of the law and if you are old enough to commit these crimes you are old enough to face the punishments. And to these people I would say this: you are not only wrecking the lives of others, you are potentially wrecking your own life too.

I did my time for the rape. I paid my money to Las Vegas. I paid my dues.

Criminals are not the victims of society; society is the victim of criminals.

The law makes ten criminals where it restrains one.

All of us have made mistakes in our lives, but only some of us have had to pay for the mistakes. [By going to jail.]

I have prosecuted very serious criminals who are now serving very long jail sentences.

I prefer a prison full of criminals than a graveyard full of innocent people.

But [your crime] will be there, one hundred times denied, always there, dragging itself behind you. Then you will finally know that you have committed your life with one throw of the die, once and for all, and there is nothing you can do but tug our crime along until your death. Such is the law, just and unjust, of repentance. Then we will see what will become of your young pride.

To be absolved, especially if you commit a crime, there is no absolution, you must pay. But for forgiveness, with God or nature, you have to accept what you've done.

Redemption isn't giving a bank robber a job as a teller.

We have determined as a society, as a country, as a people, that the incarceration and the supervision and the specific fines for a particular crime are that person's debt to society.

I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions.

You can't be sent away to prison for life and feel OK about it.

Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.

I'm sorry I didn't go to jail for six months, then I know you could come to see me anytime you wanted to.

We make no apology for people who should be in prison being in prison.

There is no refuge from memory and remorse in this world. The spirits of our foolish deeds haunt us, with or without repentance.

The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problems.

The extent of one man's guilt may be defined by how much of it is experienced by the party he injured.

The message has to be sent that if you commit a crime there has to be punishment.

You can put handcuffs on people who push the envelope. When they break the law, they deserve to have handcuffs.

Within the realm of the law, we have to be as severe as we can. We will not simply give capital punishment to all criminals, but those who deserve it will get it.

Bad people should be incarcerated.

There are eight kinds of punishment: fine, fetters, flogging, retaliation in kind, civil disgrace, banishment, slavery, death