M. C. Gainey Quotes

Rather than serving in the U.S. Senate for almost 20 years or having so many other wonderful life experiences, I could have served a longer sentence in prison for some of the stupid, reckless things I did as a teenager.

I went to prison; therefore, I've been rehabilitated, and now I want to get on with my life. I have paid for what I did, end of story.

It's dangerous to write people off just because they've been arrested.

Once you have a felony conviction on your record, one of the most difficult things to do is to break the cycle of recidivism.

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 went to prison, I paid my bill.

I'm not a fugitive anymore. Never will be in the future. After spending five years in jail, you learn your lesson. I never want to return there.

I went to jail at 16 for stealing tires off Cadillacs. When I got out I said, Never again.

The notion that we should take away educational programs in prisons in order to be tough on crime makes no sense.

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

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

The U.S. is supposed to be a nation of second chances, but for the 70 million Americans with a criminal record, we're not doing such a great job. Even among those whose crimes were nonviolent and committed long ago, too many still bear a scarlet letter.

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.

You have people there from all walks of life: people who made mistakes and have to deal with the consequences, mothers and fathers. You wouldn't expect them to be behind bars.

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

I saw worse stuff inside prison than I ever saw in the streets.

As the U.S. prison population has surged over the decades, the legal profession's distaste for former inmates has become more conspicuous. And it isn't only law. Medical schools often have committees to evaluate cases and mitigating factors but are generally reluctant to admit ex-inmates.

I would make the case that the vast majority of prisoners leave prison and go back into society. We share that society with them and what sort of people do we want them to be.

America is the land of the second chance - and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.

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.

The most direct path to success is a good job, but the road to employment for those with criminal records is often riddled with barriers. Removing those barriers would allow those with records to leave the past behind, support their families, make a positive future - and improve our economy.

What are we going to do to make sure people get the skills they need if they are incarcerated so that when they are released to hit the ground running? And what are we all going to do to give people who've earned a second chance, a second chance?

I think most people have a general sense that when you're released from prison, life is hard, but, you know, if you work hard and apply self-discipline and stay out of trouble, you can make it. But that's true only for a relative few.

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?