Michael Howard Quotes

Punishment is not for revenge, but to lessen crime and reform the criminal.

We want a state of things in which crime will not pay.

Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.

The essence to reducing violent crime in our society is to take these people [criminals] off the street.

It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them.

There is little evidence that the length of a sentence, as opposed to its certainty, has significant deterrent effects. If we cut sentences in half across the board, there is no reason to believe we’d see an appreciable rise in crime, and over time we would most likely see a large drop in the prison population.

It is a huge asset to law and order that serious or persistent criminals should be taken out of the society on which they prey. It makes life safer for the law-abiding and on the whole prisons are pretty good at containing those who have been committed to them.

No one wants dangerous criminals in our communities.

I think we will be safer when we can concentrate law enforcement and criminal justice resources and energies on those individuals who truly need, for the safety of society... to be incarcerated.

The prison systems in this country actually are exploitative and they are not in any way rehabilitative.

We have to bring back law and order in this country and I think the police are phenomenal people.

I know what it's like to be ignored, and I think that is the big problem about the prison system: These people are being thrown away. There is no sense of rehabilitation. In some places, they are trying to do things. But, in most cases, it's a holding cell.

Punishment can do a lot for criminals, and send a message to the rest of society.

All emphasis in American prisons is on punishment, retribution, and disparagement, and almost none is on rehabilitation.

Of course it can be said of jails, too, that they try - by punishing the troublesome - to deter others. No doubt, in certain instances this deterrence actually works. But generally speaking it fails conspicuously.

Stopping crime before it occurs is the most effective crime fighting tool of all.

We make no apology for people who should be in prison being in prison.

It is time to put more cops on the beat and remove our most violent repeat offenders from our neighborhood streets.

There are a lot of messages that need to be sent to the criminal who is out there dealing in this on the streets of the United States. We need to send the message of swiftness and certain punishment.

And some people, you've got to lock up. If you don't, they're going to hurt you.

We must renew our efforts to keep our communities safe, from the dangers of terrorists from foreign lands and from common criminals here at home. Let no criminal believe that tough fiscal times will yield an open cell door and a ticket to freedom.

Criminals are punished, that others may be deterred.

Place all prisons near a high-road, where the suffering and disfigured offenders can be seen

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.

The purpose of punishment is fulfilled, crime is repressed by penalties of just, not tormenting, severity, its repetition is prevented, and hope is given for the reformation of the criminal.