The average mind is slow in grasping a truth, but when the most thoroughly organized, centralized institution, maintained at an excessive national expense, has proven a complete social failure, the dullest must begin to question its right to exist. The time is past when we can be content with our social fabric merely because it is "ordained by divine right," or by the majesty of the law.

"Prisons: A Social Crime and Failure" (1911)

Anarchism and Other Essays: Prisons[dwardmac.pitzer.edu]