reformative justice Quotes

We consider a prisoner unfortunate. He is unfortunate in two ways-because he has done something wrong and because he is deprived of his liberty. Therefore we should treat him kindly, because of his misfortune, for otherwise he would become hard and bitter and would not be sorry he had done wrong.

The object of punishment is to... lift the man up; to stamp out his bad nature and wicked disposition.

The purpose of punishment is to improve those who do the punishing--that is the final recourse of those who support punishment.

My overriding belief is that it is always possible for criminals to improve and that by its very finality the death penalty contradicts this.

The punishment of criminals should be of use; when a man is hanged he is good for nothing.

But then eject them forever from this country. For, as we have heard, God's anger with them is so intense that gentle mercy will only tend to make them worse and worse, while sharp mercy will reform them but little. Therefore, in any case, away with them!

To destroy an offender cannot benefit society so much as to redeem him.

If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.

Fear, coercion, punishment, are the masculine remedies for moral weakness, but statistics show their failure for centuries. Why not change the system and try the education of the moral and intellectual faculties, cheerful surroundings, inspiring influences? Everything in our present system tends to lower the physical vitality, the self-respect, the moral tone, and to harden instead of reforming the criminal.

In the application of the method of non-violence, one must believe in the possibility of every person, however depraved, being reformed under humane and skilled treatment.