half-responsible

Updated: May 14, 2025

Go into any large English jail on any day in any year you like, you shall find there two or three prisoners who have no business to be in such a place at all half-witted, half-responsible creatures, missent to jail by shallow judges contentedly executing those shallow laws they ought to modify and stigmatize until civilization shall come and correct them.

Charles Reade - It Is Never Too Late to Mend