Russell Hornsby Quotes

Incarceration didn't change me. In many ways, incarceration galvanized me. The totality of the experience helped me.

If it wasn't for prison, I was in a bad way.

It took me three and a half years to go from being sentenced in federal court to going to the Oscars.

I think of my brother just out of prison again. He will have spent ten years of the last 30 in prison.

That's the most important thing you do in your life - raise children and try to do the best job as a parent and give your kids the best shot in life to go out there into the big, bad world.

I get a lot of calls from families and people who have served time and they say, 'Thank you, Sheriff. I hate the tents.' That's music to my ears.

I'm not excusing crime or those who bring poison into the community, but I do want brothers and sisters in prison to know someone cares.

During my time in prison, I told myself that I wanted to be a part of the solution and not the problem.

If you asked me, parents were supposed to affect the life of their child in such a way that the child grows up to be responsible, able to participate in life and in community.

I went to prison, I paid my bill.

I can say without affectation that I belong to the Russian convict world no less than I do to Russian literature. I got my education there, and it will last forever.

It takes a village to raise a child.

Prison matures you.

If you allow young folk to be abominably brought up and their characters corrupted little by little, from childhood; and if then you punish them as grown-ups for committing the crimes to which their training has consistently inclined them, what else is this, I ask, but first making thieves and then punishing them for it?

Let those who have been robbers, now become knights.

The key for members of the public is that they want criminals to be punished. They want them taken off the streets. They also want criminals who come out of prison to go straight.

When a young person is sent 'up the river,' we need to remember that all rivers can change course.

Given the devastation that crime can visit on families and communities, I will err on being a little too tough on crime than being too soft on crime.

I think of the prisoners on 'Orange Is the New Black,' a lot of times, as uplifting.

We don't live in a world where, if you commit a crime, your life's over. We as a society believe in rehabilitation. We believe in second and third chances.

I've always had some level of having to be independent outside of music because the music wasn't a smooth ride. We lost a lot in the mix: Everybody that I came in the music game with - friends I brought in with me - are all doing 10-34 years in jail. That's why if you want to get the real, you gotta get it from me.

Our criminal justice system is failing all of us. It is not keeping us safe. It is contributing to a vicious cycle of crime and punishment.

A mother plays a very important role in every child's life.

When I was locked up, I went through a big personal change with my attitude and spiritual, everything. I went through some major changes locked up.

Being a parent is a huge responsibility. Your child becomes the centre of your world.