criminal justice quotes

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

Generally speaking, the public appetite for criminal justice policy is just tough talk.

I think most defense attorneys know, to some extent, their clients are guilty.

With the advent of DNA, we know that people have been convicted and sentenced to death who later proved not to be guilty of the crime.

‚Getting smart on crime‘ does not mean reducing sentences or punishments for crimes.

I don’t like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there.

Algorithms diminish public safety in this country. They ask us to pretend that lengthy arrest records and violent crimes don’t matter. They ask police to scoop up the bad guys only for the courts to immediately release them. They turn us into a bad joke.

Let’s be clear about this, and let’s be clear: we should not be creating incentives to house people in prison. We should be creating incentives instead to shut the revolving door into prison.

Most states in the union where the death penalty is theoretically on the books don’t have executions.

I never sympathise with the accused unless there’s a chance the accused is not guilty, but I certainly don’t ever sympathise with the criminal.

For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium.

Don’t hire a prison consultant.