Inmates Quotations

I was in juvenile detention center, and I was in Rikers Island. And there was an anthology written by the inmates called 'The Pen,' and I - you know, I had a crush on a girl, and she left me when I was incarcerated. And I found this poem in this anthology that talked about having your heart broken and being incarcerated.

Prisons are fascinating places, especially when the inmates are educated white-collar types.

There'll be moments when I'm out in the prison yard, chatting with the cast and the crew, getting ready to shoot a scene. And then I'll remember if I were actually an inmate, I'd only be out there an hour. The other 23 hours of the day, I'd be in my cell. It's kind of a downer.

The other inmates stand in a long straight line, flanked by guards, and I am dragged past them. I do not respect them, because they will not run - will not try to escape.

Wrong believing puts people in a prison. Even though there are no physical shackles, wrong believing causes its inmates to behave as though they were incarcerated in a maximum-security penitentiary.

I was strip searched against a wall in front of everyone. All the inmates were watching me. They took my shoes, my clothing. They threw it very far away. They threw it down the hallway. They told me to chase after it. Squatting like a dog.

One of the concerns the state had about prior executions is that inmates were rendered too unconscious.

One of the guards was shot through the heart and died instantly and three inmates died in the ensuing shootout with the other two guards.

Of course there are implications, for the death penalty and death row inmates in all states, when the Supreme Court of the land hears such a case.

I'd like to double-bunk inmates, where it can be done safely, and take in as many (state Department of Correction) inmates as possible. I made a large sum of money (for the county) when I was sheriff.

If we didn't have those programs, we would have an additional 80-plus people at any given time housed in custody, which would put us well into the 300s, and we can only hold 305, ... This year we have an average of 275 inmates a day. If we didn't have these programs, we would have 80 more people on top of that average. The Corrections Standards Authority rate of capacity of the facility is 296.

When three guards entered the cell to escort the prisoner to the infirmary, three inmates opened fire with .38-caliber revolvers.

Jails may accommodate the religious needs of inmates by funding chaplains' services that offer assistance to all prisoners regardless of their faith. But they cannot pay a Christian ministry to bring only the Christian message into their jails.

Given what illegal immigration costs each year, given that 30 percent of inmates in our federal prisons are illegal aliens and given the strain illegal immigration puts on our health care, it's a small price to pay.

He is an extremely well-liked, well-respected, model inmate in the system by the authorities as well as by the inmates. Some of the inmates have come to sympathize with him because of his special restrictions.

He's forced into that. No astute correctional officials will voluntarily put their highest-risk inmates together like that.

The purpose behind this lawsuit is to improve the conditions of confinement for inmates in the county jail,

Long before the new jail is built, with the displacement of the inmates from the stockade, we are going to be at overcapacity. So, we are going to ask the board (county commissioners) to look at alternatives to incarceration.

That approach is like letting the inmates run the jail. Reviews like this should be done independently of departments.

Just because they are inmates doesn't mean they should not be treated humanely. The way it is now, it won't be long before someone gets killed over there.

It does appear that these detainees are not allowing these inmates to leave.

I think these women are taken in by these inmates. These inmates somehow say the right thing.

Oxford is -- Oxford: not a mere receptacle for youth, like Cambridge. Perhaps it wants its inmates to love it rather than to love one another.

I think it is protection for our officers. It keeps the inmates busy, keeps them engrossed in something, ... It's an amount well-spent in order to keep the peace in our corrections facility.

To go from working in a prison to living there is a serious reversal of fortune, ... Stealing from inmates is both outrageous and ridiculous. I hope this case, along with our other numerous convictions of public officials in the past three years, will send the strong message that people who embezzle money from the government always get caught, and in Saline County they face severe punishment.

Most inmates with an escape under their belt are housed under our highest level of security.

That was restricted custody ... It's a place for the inmates who are out in the community (on work release). ... If you think about it, why would you build a secure perimeter around it when they're gone all day anyway?

That would be a hard decision for the court to make in that I don't think (Morales) has the medical evidence. I think doctors will eventually be able to assure the courts that it's possible to administer lethal injection so that inmates don't feel pain.

My brother Jim and I saw our father go into the jails and pray with the inmates Sunday after Sunday. He prayed with both blacks and whites. If we ever repeated any slurs we heard on the playground, he'd tell us very softly, "I don't want to hear those words.

We haven't exactly determined what set off the fight, but several inmates did join in based on gang affiliation.

You knew who was the boss. That's a refreshing thing now. Here in Chicago, the inmates don't run the asylum. They're held accountable. They know what the rules are.

We don't want to make the meals too good. The inmates might not want to leave.

That's usually the color they put inmates in, you know that?

This program encourages inmates to be responsible for their decisions and it promises that they will be held accountable for their actions. If they make good decisions, there are quality-of-life things available to them.

We have folks in Cut Bank and Browning who may benefit from a service like this, especially with the cost of gas as high as it is, ... We've also looked at using the bus for inmates being paroled or discharged in Great Falls.

I became chairman of the inmates committee. Got into a lot of trouble. Was accused of fomenting a riot. Was accused of plotting to kill the warden.

I would have been content with still playing Inmate #1. I worked on every prison movie made, from 1985 to 1991. I would go from movie to movie to movie.

Too many times, you read too many instances where relationships develop and all of a sudden an officer is going to do something that's wrong on behalf of the inmates such as being in stuff he should not be having. We just wanted to cut that off before it even gets to that.

We appreciate the help, from the (county jail) inmates and from everybody involved. One outfit alone would not be able to handle a project like this.

We're in desperate need of beds right now. We have more inmates than we've ever had -- it's an all-time high.

At about 8:40 this morning we had approximately 400 inmates participating in a riot. Thirty-nine of them we have been able to identify as needing medical treatment.

They are an excellent labor resource. It's something the inmates feel they are giving back to society. I think it's a win-win situation for everyone.

The timing ... makes me ask if (Grant) proactively went and solicited these inmates to file the lawsuit.

It was a known reality. If those two black inmates went to the yard, as they had to, and they were followed out there by southern Hispanics, there was going to be a fight.

We don't want to say, 'I told you so,' but these are the kinds of things we have been fearful of for quite some time. There are real problems with transporting inmates to all hospitals and not having sufficient security at those hospitals.

We've got 57 certified beds and we run an average of 100 inmates on weekends, over 100 inmates a day.

We will open the detention center and see how many prisoners we receive from the Tribal Court before we decide whether to take contract inmates from other areas.

We want a briefing on the internal investigation going on hopefully in The Hague in connection with the latest incidents which happened there and the condition in which the inmates are kept.

We went over to Chalmette one day where they desperately needed help, and we were turned away because some inmates escaped. Who cares? Why should that stop us from going in there? That parish (St. Bernard) estimated there were 7,500 stranded in their homes. Nobody's been able to talk to them, and we get turned away.

They see it as sort of putting the inmates in charge of the jail.

Our agents along with the San Antonio Police Department arrested two people that we believe without a doubt committed and facilitated the escape of the seven inmates on December the 13 of last year,

There's something about the criminal element where you have inmates that talk amongst themselves, and hopefully, if they do the right thing, they'll tell the authorities, who may at least have leads to work with.

Inmates began rioting ... to protest the transfer of the two inmates.

Inmates called out to the guards saying that a prisoner was ill and had to be taken to the infirmary. When three guards entered the cell to escort the prisoner to the infirmary, three inmates opened fire with .38 caliber revolvers.

Inmates have a lot of time on their hands in here and learning is a way to make good use of their free time.

Inmates should not have to face the choice of putting out or being beaten up. If this were the only case in Texas, you could say, 'Oh, it seems extreme.' But Texas has been notorious for sexual violence.

I needed a place to put the dogs. The prisoners ruined the jail, so I put the prisoners in the tents and I had a nice place to put the dogs. We treat the cats nice too, and horses. I have the inmates take care of the animals. It's therapy too, you see.

The best situation of all, and one frequently utilized, is for jails and prisons to allow volunteer ministers of all faiths to enter prisons and offer their services to the inmates who want them. That way, the religious needs of inmates are met but without government funds being spent.

Any black market is a security concern. Any time you have inmates trafficking and trading, the potential exists for there to be a fight over it.

Not only will it mean this inmate will very likely be executed, but it also would make it much harder for other inmates to challenge executions based on the method of execution.

Anytime you have overcrowding, it leads to deterioration of facilities. Tensions can also rise and it can lead to violence. That's not good for inmates or staff.

The notion of equating students with hardened inmates is troubling, and it doesn't paint a pretty picture of how schools feel about their kids.

The female inmates care about their kids. It's very good for the inmates. It gives them some kind of hope that people on the outside care about them.

In this league, you've got to have strong leadership; you've got to be able to handle the ups and downs, ... Nobody had been through the ups here. We didn't have that structure set up to back the leadership that was in place. The inmates were running the asylum.

It ended up being four on four. The officers were able to subdue the inmates and cuff them after a short period of time.

I questioned some of the things I saw, such things as leaving inmates in their cell with no clothes or in female underpants, handcuffing them to the door of their cell. And the answer I got was, this is how the military intelligence wants it done.

In the buildings, the inmates were using broken broom handles and crutches and they were ramming the employees with laundry carts.

Certainly we hope to use this 500 to address the number of inmates in county jails over the 30-day limit.

They were preparing to start moving the inmates over for breakfast. We had them segregated. The Latino inmates were going to exit and go to breakfast. During that movement, the initial reports indicate that the Latinos began to attack white inmates.

It was a combination of sheets that were braided together -- pieces of an inmates uniform that were braided together.

The myth historically has been that these are country club prisons where inmates go out to swimming pools and get their nails done, ... Nothing could be further from the truth.

The inmates are doing everything they're told and spending plenty of time using squeegees and mops,

The inmates are very willing to do this type of work. It's something they can do to better serve the community.

The inmates understand our concerns. They just want good, usable items.

Changi became my university instead of my prison. ... Among the inmates there were experts in all walks of life - the high and the low roads. I studied and absorbed everything I could from physics to counterfeiting, but most of all I learned the art of surviving.

Books are to me as homemade tattoos are to an inmate. Can't get enough of them.

The United States now has more prison inmates than full-time farmers.

It's a hot item. Inmates want one, and it appears to be motivating them.

We spend a lot of time saving the lives of inmates who, quite frankly, don't want to be saved.

We expect our staff to be receptive to this. They know they have a general responsibility to the inmates under their care, as well as to other staff.

We have a crisis right now. We're out of bed space in the jail. Right now we're having to house a lot of the inmates out of county and that gets to be expensive.

It's easy to stand back and listen and watch. We need people taking note of what's happening. (County officials) need input from inmates and family members.

The inmates are ghosts whose dreams have been murdered.

It seems as though I were in a lunatic asylum, but I am never sure who is the attendant and who the inmate.

I started out in 1985, and I was Inmate #1 in every prison movie made from '85 to '93.

Prison has humbled me in a lot of ways, because when you go to prison, I became 11 R 2024 you know, I wasn't Ja Rule the superstar. I wasn't any of that. I was just a regular inmate.

The thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.

A prison does not only lock its inmates inside, it keeps all others out. Her strongest prison is of her own construction.

An African-American inmate walked up to a white inmate and basically said hello. And the Latino inmates took umbrage with the tone of the salutation.

When did women whose looks are not their living start conducting themselves like the simpering inmates of an Ottoman empire seraglio?

I can tell you this on a stack of Bibles: prisons are archaic, brutal, unregenerative, overcrowded hell holes where the inmates are treated like animals with absolutely not one humane thought given to what they are going to do once they are released. You're an animal in a cage and you're treated like one.

I had to spend my entire childhood in the Altensam dungeon like an inmate doing time for no comprehensible reason, for a crime he can't remember committing, a judicial error probably.

Civilization today reminds me of an ape with a blowtorch playing in a room full of dynamite. It looks like the monkeys are about to operate the zoo, and the inmates are taking over the asylum.

Once I talked to the inmates of an insane asylum in Hartford. I have talked to idiots a thousand times, but only once to the insane...

If the time should ever come when what is now called Science, thus famliarised to men, shall be ready to put on, as it were, a form of flesh and blood, the Poet will lend his divine spirit to the aid the transfiguration, and will welcome the Being thus produced, as a dear and genuine inmate of the household of man.