clarence darrow:

"if i looked at jails and crimes and prisoners in the way the ordinary person does, i should not speak on this subject to you. the reason i talk to you on the question of crime, its cause and cure, is because i really do not in the least believe in crime."

"there is no such thing as a crime as the word is generally understood. i do not believe there is any sort of distinction between the real moral condition of the people in and out of jail. one is just as good as the other."

"the people here can no more help being here than the people outside can avoid being outside. i do not believe that people are in jail because they deserve to be."

"they are in jail simply because they cannot avoid it on account of circumstances which are entirely beyond their control and for which they are in no way responsible."

"there are people who think that everything in this world is an accident. but there is really no such thing as an accident. a great many falls admit many of the people in jail ought not to be there, and many who are outside ought to be in. i think none of them out to be here."

"there ought to be no jails, and if it were not for the fact that the people on the outside are so grasping and heartless in their dealings with the people on the inside, there would be no such institutions as jails."