If you're willing to give convicts time served and let them walk, why do you want to give them a criminal record? I mean, either they should be in ja…

- Peter Moskos

I don't think we can reduce the prison population now, so many of these people are damaged goods once they've spent much time in prison. It would hav…

- Peter Moskos

There's no straight line between closing the mental institutions and filling the prisons but there is some sort of relationship. And it's hard to tel…

- Peter Moskos

I think there is a lot of crime caused by desperation, and it doesn't mean that people commit crime because they're poor, but certainly a lot of peop…

- Peter Moskos

I'm not fond of ideologies. I don't like it when people have answers before they know the question.

- Peter Moskos

I know this in a way from my police background: the second you mention, "The system's racist," one-third of the country simply puts down the book and…

- Peter Moskos

I am very cynical. That is absolutely what police is doing. But you don't even have to be cynical. I mean, politicians don't even pretend they're doi…

- Peter Moskos

Although I consider myself pretty liberal, I'm not against punishment. There's nothing wrong with punishing someone who has done something wrong. Or …

- Peter Moskos

These 2.3 million prisoners, somehow we've convinced ourselves that's normal and rational, more prisoners than soldiers, more prisoners than China, m…

- Peter Moskos