Charles Bass Quotes

Why would anyone expect Tyson to come out smarter? He went to prison for four years, not Princeton.

We spend $94,000 per prisoner [per year]. There is a tension between punishment and making people’s lives better and I don’t actually think that we have done the second part well. We put people in prison and expect them to come out

We must do better by offenders who are sent to prison to make them less likely to return.

As soon as I ended up being incarcerated, I said, you know, this is not the life for me.

All emphasis in American prisons is on punishment, retribution, and disparagement, and almost none is on rehabilitation.

Well I certainly have learned and I hope I'm moving on and certainly two years of prison was a terrible punishment.

I used to teach acting in a maximum security men's prison. I worked with guys with the most dysfunctional behavior problems. I probably learned more there than from my prestigious theater degree.

Dutch prisons are probably the most civilized you're going to find anywhere in the world.

A reform in the system of criminal jurisprudence, by which the death penalty shall no longer be inflicted; and by which, during that term, a portion of the prison employment shall be for, and the product thereof be faithfully paid over to, the support of the criminal’s family; and by which our so-called prisons shall be virtually transformed into vast reformatory workshops, from which the unfortunate may emerge to be useful members of society, instead of the alienated citizens they now are.

Unless we address those that are leaving prisons, we can't begin to repair the damage of mass incarceration and make our communities whole and healthy once again.

After six prison commitments, at the end of those, I was more broken than when I went into the system.

Shouldn't one of the goals of prison be getting as many of the inmates as possible back out into the world to be responsible citizens? Aren't we just wasting generations of human potential by keeping over two million people behind bars?

Prisons are out of public sight, and most often out of mind. But the vast majority of prisoners will at some point leave jail and rejoin our communities, which is why what happens inside matters to us all.

I knew hundreds and hundreds of women like me, who had traveled in and out of prison in a revolving door. They needed support and help just like I had received. And it could make a difference, just like it had made a difference in my life. I wanted to see them come back to the community and have a chance at a different life, too.

Offenders who commit crime in prison have a disruptive and often devastating impact on the prospects of those who are trying to turn their lives around and who see prison as a pivotal turning point in their lives.

If I’m ever released, I do the same again. Exactly the same.

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

The way to reform has always led through prison.

Prisons are universities of the opposition.

The head of a penal institution is more important to the progress of society than the president of a university. His task is more difficult: he must be more resourceful; he must have a combination of culture, education, business ability, and personal character of the highest order; all backed up by a physique that will carry him through continuous experiences such as will break the health, vision, and optimism of most men.

A duty to the public must be to stop prisoners reoffending through successful rehabilitation.

The regime in too many prisons is one of idleness, and locking up someone from such a background in idleness virtually guarantees re-offending. Instead there needs to be a full day's work every weekday in either the workshops or the education department or preferably a mixture of both.

I've taught in prison; I've counseled people... I've been arrested; I've been to the psychiatrist.

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.

I spent five years of my youth in prison - some very bad prisons.