Rod Lurie

We are viewed by the world as a quasi-racist state in which we allow natural disasters to obliterate our minority community, in which our penal system is designed to treat blacks unfairly, and in which we let the medical and educational systems in our ghettos fester to the level of some third-world countries.

Israeli Director

Michelle Alexander

Our nation has slashed budgets for education, job training, economic development, and drug treatment while investing billions in prisons and militarized police. A penal system unprecedented in world history has been born. Millions have been arrested and stripped of basic civil and human rights.

American Writer

Norman Davies

The historical profession is nowhere famous for its tolerance, but there are not many countries where historians can expect to pay for their opinions with penal servitude or the firing squad.

British Historian

Samantha Harvey

When there's change, and people fear things, they become more dogmatic in their views. They lash out: you can see it in the media, scapegoating and penal sentencing.

English Author

Roger Mahony

I personally believe, as church law sets out, that sanctions are an absolute last resort, particularly penal sanctions of depriving people of the sacraments.

American Clergyman

Lord Byron

I cannot help thinking that the menace of Hell makes as many devils as the severe penal codes of inhuman humanity make villains.

British Poet

Dean Winters

I've definitely become more aware of the penal system and more aware of what life could be like inside a prison.

American Actor

John Layfield

You can't use the tax code as a penal system because you don't like what a country is doing.

American Businessman

Frank Morgan

I'm eternally grateful to the penal system in California for saving my life.

American Musician

Taylor Caldwell

American Author

The term 'penal' is often used in legal or academic discussions about crimes and punishments.

Legal Focus

'Penal' describes punishment in terms of law or regulations, not physical punishment.

Not Physical

'Penal' doesn't always carry a negative connotation; it can be neutral, focusing on the concept of legal accountability.

Not Always Negative

'Penal' in this context highlights the intent to deter others from similar misconduct by setting an example.

Deterrence Emphasis

Use 'penal' when describing actions taken by authorities or official bodies to enforce rules.

Official Actions

'Penal' implies that the tax or charge is significantly burdensome and may be intended to discourage certain behaviors.

Economic Burden

Despite being high, a 'penal' tax or fee might be considered justifiable depending on the context, like environmental levies.

Not Always Unjust

 added decoration to their penal tattoos, with designs borrowed from woodblock prints, popular literature and mythical spirtual iconography. Yakuza gangs viewed their outsider tattoos as signs of lifelong loyalty and courage. After all, they lasted forever and it really hurt to get them.

The history of tattoos -...

 surrounded by a wall of tissue that's rich in a stiff structural protein called collagen. But at the time when I started this project, the best explanation I could find for penal erection was that the wall surrounded these spongy tissues, and the spongy tissues filled with blood