I know it is unfashionable to say this, but the whipping post could be a humane alternative to prison . . .
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An entry to Megan McArdle’s contest.
It has become increasingly apparent that are prisons aren’t working to rehabilitate inmates, on the contrary they have been called graduate schools for criminals. And it has also become increasingly apparent that there are either no good ideas on how to make them so, or there is no political will to implement them.
So, if we drop rehabilitation as a goal of criminal punishment, why exactly is imprisonment superior to whipping?
One obvious answer is the physical cruelty inherent in any kind of corporal punishment. But inmate-on-inmate rape is one of the worst-kept secrets of the prison system, and knowledge of it seems to inspire more snickering and jokes than efforts to confront the problem. Would you rather receive thirty lashes or daily sexual abuse for the next thirty days?
Prison overcrowding and knowledge of the cruelty of prisons also leads to increases in parole and shortening of sentences. Thus, the criminal leaves prison without the sense that he has fully paid his debt to society. A scourging causes no such problem. There will be no practical concerns that would lead to the punishment being interrupted or shortened, and all concerned will leave with the knowledge that the debt to society has been fully repaid.
With the time of the punishment compressed, the criminal has more time to turn his life around and make amends. What, exactly, is someone who has been in prison since age 18 supposed to do for a career once he is released at age 35?
One goal of imprisonment that scourging would not tackle is incapacitation, preventing the criminal from committing other crimes. The prevalence of inmate-on-inmate violence shows that even imprisonment does an incomplete job of this, and new information technology breakthroughs make it increasingly possible for an inmate to impact the outside world as well, so that is falling by the wayside.
With prisons the way they are, and no political will to change them, the whipping post could be a humane alternative to prison .
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June 6th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I’ll vote for that. It CAN’T be any worse than what we have now.
June 17th, 2008 at 6:55 am
I have a lot to say on this topic, and no time. Briefly — I think rehabilitation should continue to be prime goal of prison, and recognize that no prison system seems interested in that goal.
There needs to be some positive gain to person from not committing crime. Not just, I won’t be raped or whipped, but rather, my day-to-day life will be better if I live it honestly.
One idea that might appeal to you: have parole tied to active participation in a religious or ethical community.
More radically, treat prisoners as human beings. It may remain the case that some continue not to treat each other as human, in which case they should stay in prison, but I’m opposed to whipping of humans ( I presume you mean something more radical than the parental spanking).
I take your point (and I assume you’re being at least a little tongue in cheek), but I’m not ready to throw my hands up and say that prison rape is inevitable, so any comparable alternative is acceptable.