“If you've ever wondered how many prisons need to operate withinin America, just look at the literacy rate. 60% of America's prison inmates are illiterate and 85% of all juvenile offenders have reading problems.”

“The six rules of life.1. Don't like something just because you think other people will like it, because they won't. 2. What you think is important isnt. What you think is unimportant is. 3. Lean into it. 4. Don't shit where you eat. 5. Most doors are closed so if you want them to open you need a cool knock. 6. Don't sleep with people who have more problems than you do.”

“...I consider a room without reading to be a hell without consolation, a gibbet without relief, a prison without light, a tomb without a vent, a ditch swarming with worms, a suffocating trap....”

“There is a difference between the inmates of your criminal prisons and the inmates of your cultural prison: The former understand that the distribution of wealth and power inside the prison had nothing to do with justice.”

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

“Many offenders are tracked for prison at early ages, labeled as criminals in their teen years, and then shuttled from their decrepit, underfunded inner city schools to brand-new, high-tech prisons.”

“We’re not exactly heavenly angels. More like prison inmates with wings.”