How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
In 1951 eight inmates, known as the "Heel-string Gang," inaugurated the first reform at Angola by slitting their Achilles tendons with razor blades rather than go to the "long line" in the fields, where they were systematically beaten or shot by guards. (2.10)
This is a pretty grim demonstration of the injustice of the prison system: some prisoners were so miserable that they actually mutilated themselves in protest. It's worth pointing out that Angola was a slave plantation before it was a prison, and that the majority of prisoners there were black. Justice, in this case, was in many ways a continuation of the violence of the slavery system. Um, not really justice at all, in other words.
Quote #2
…I honestly thought that when a person faced death, he or she would at least be given adequate legal defense. I thought that the Constitution promised that. (2.58)
Ha, ha, Constitutional rights! How silly you were, Sister Helen. In fact, as Prejean discovers, justice, like everything else, costs money. The Constitution can talk about rights all it wants, but if you can't pay for a lawyer, you can measure out the justice you'll get with the world's tiniest spoon.
Quote #3
In Louisiana it's unusual for a black man to be executed for killing another black man. Although the majority of victims of homicide in the state are black… 75 percent of death-row inmates are there for killing whites. (3.4)
Usually, racism in the justice system is thought about in terms of defendants—that is, black people are arrested and incarcerated at much higher rates than whites. But Prejean points out another aspect of racist justice, which is that white victims are more important than black ones. When black people are murdered, their killers are much less likely to get the death penalty than are the murderers (white or black) of white people.