In defense of flogging

[Quantum Windbag]

This guy makes some really good points. I wonder how many people here will totally miss the point.

Suggest adding the whipping post to America’s system of criminal justice and most people recoil in horror. But offer a choice between five years in prison or 10 lashes and almost everybody picks the lash. What does that say about prison? America has a prison problem. Never in the history of the world has a country locked up so many of its people. We have more prisons than China, and it has a billion more people than we do. Forty years ago America had 338,000 people behind bars. Today 2.3 million are incarcerated. We have more prisoners than soldiers. Something has gone terribly wrong.
The problem — mostly due to longer and mandatory sentences combined with an idiotic war on drugs — is so abysmal that the Supreme Court recently ordered 33,000 prisoners in California to be housed elsewhere or released. If California could simply return to its 1970 level of incarceration, the savings from its $9 billion prison budget would cut the state’s budget deficit in half. But doing so would require the release of 125,000 inmates, and not even the most progressive reformer has a plan to reduce the prison population by 85 percent.
I do: Bring back the lash. Give convicts the choice of flogging in lieu of incarceration.

In lieu of prison, bring back the lash - The Washington Post


Anyone that is serious about reforming the prison system should read his book.


[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465021484?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0465021484"]Amazon.com: In Defense of Flogging (9780465021482): Peter Moskos: Books[/ame]

Put me down for missing the point. Is it that this is a good way to clear up the overcrowded prison population and save the taxpayers a lot of money? If that's it, I am not on board. Putting people in prison instead of publically humiliating them, flogging them, drawing and quartering them, etc., is the price we pay for calling ourselves a civilized society. Given the options, I'll take civilized any time.

Another thing - 5 years in prison v. 10 lashes? Hmmm . . . How about 6 months in jail v. 10 lashes? 3 months? And, by the way, 10 lashes, properly administered with the right equipment, can put a person in the hospital, I would think.

I call pretty much bullshit on this entire thread. Sorry QW.

You are the first to ask.

In Defense of Flogging by Peter Moskos

The point is actually that flogging, even the way it is done Thailand, which, as you point out, can put you in the hospital, is less of an outrage than our current prison system. The point is not about flogging, it is about the prison system.

 

[George Costanza]

This guy makes some really good points. I wonder how many people here will totally miss the point.


In lieu of prison, bring back the lash - The Washington Post


Anyone that is serious about reforming the prison system should read his book.


Amazon.com: In Defense of Flogging (9780465021482): Peter Moskos: Books

Put me down for missing the point. Is it that this is a good way to clear up the overcrowded prison population and save the taxpayers a lot of money? If that's it, I am not on board. Putting people in prison instead of publically humiliating them, flogging them, drawing and quartering them, etc., is the price we pay for calling ourselves a civilized society. Given the options, I'll take civilized any time.

Another thing - 5 years in prison v. 10 lashes? Hmmm . . . How about 6 months in jail v. 10 lashes? 3 months? And, by the way, 10 lashes, properly administered with the right equipment, can put a person in the hospital, I would think.

I call pretty much bullshit on this entire thread. Sorry QW.

You are the first to ask.

In Defense of Flogging by Peter Moskos

The point is actually that flogging, even the way it is done Thailand, which, as you point out, can put you in the hospital, is less of an outrage than our current prison system. The point is not about flogging, it is about the prison system.

Well, it comes down to personal values and choices. I agree that prison is an outrage - at least the way prisons are administered today and the types of people (non-violent drug offenders) who get put there. But flogging? It isn't even close - flogging is MUCH more of an outrage than prison, regardless of how our prisons are adminsitered today.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Put me down for missing the point. Is it that this is a good way to clear up the overcrowded prison population and save the taxpayers a lot of money? If that's it, I am not on board. Putting people in prison instead of publically humiliating them, flogging them, drawing and quartering them, etc., is the price we pay for calling ourselves a civilized society. Given the options, I'll take civilized any time.

Another thing - 5 years in prison v. 10 lashes? Hmmm . . . How about 6 months in jail v. 10 lashes? 3 months? And, by the way, 10 lashes, properly administered with the right equipment, can put a person in the hospital, I would think.

I call pretty much bullshit on this entire thread. Sorry QW.

You are the first to ask.

In Defense of Flogging by Peter Moskos

The point is actually that flogging, even the way it is done Thailand, which, as you point out, can put you in the hospital, is less of an outrage than our current prison system. The point is not about flogging, it is about the prison system.

Well, it comes down to personal values and choices. I agree that prison is an outrage - at least the way prisons are administered today and the types of people (non-violent drug offenders) who get put there. But flogging? It isn't even close - flogging is MUCH more of an outrage than prison, regardless of how our prisons are adminsitered today.

The book has been getting good revues from almost everyone who read it, even the die hard liberals, so his arguments are probably pretty comprehensive. He also happens to be an ex cop, so he understands the system better than the average activist.

 

[Momanohedhunter]

This guy makes some really good points. I wonder how many people here will totally miss the point.

Suggest adding the whipping post to America’s system of criminal justice and most people recoil in horror. But offer a choice between five years in prison or 10 lashes and almost everybody picks the lash. What does that say about prison? America has a prison problem. Never in the history of the world has a country locked up so many of its people. We have more prisons than China, and it has a billion more people than we do. Forty years ago America had 338,000 people behind bars. Today 2.3 million are incarcerated. We have more prisoners than soldiers. Something has gone terribly wrong.
The problem — mostly due to longer and mandatory sentences combined with an idiotic war on drugs — is so abysmal that the Supreme Court recently ordered 33,000 prisoners in California to be housed elsewhere or released. If California could simply return to its 1970 level of incarceration, the savings from its $9 billion prison budget would cut the state’s budget deficit in half. But doing so would require the release of 125,000 inmates, and not even the most progressive reformer has a plan to reduce the prison population by 85 percent.
I do: Bring back the lash. Give convicts the choice of flogging in lieu of incarceration.

In lieu of prison, bring back the lash - The Washington Post


Anyone that is serious about reforming the prison system should read his book.


[ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465021484?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0465021484]Amazon.com: In Defense of Flogging (9780465021482): Peter Moskos: Books[/ame]

People shouldn't do the crime if they can't do the time. I know the prisons are over-crowded, and I don't have any explanations on how to help that problem, honestly I don't consider it my personal problem, I wasn't the one that committed the crime.
5 years in prison compared to 10 lashes?? Come on, of course you know people will pick the whippings. Damn, they walk the streets free the next day, and not spending 5 YEARS in a pen, sure does sound better to most no doubt.
If I had to choose, seriously?? I would choose prison. This ole gal has enough 'flogging' in her lifetime, and I have some scars left to prove it, I really don't think I could live with the mental pain or physical pain of lashing/flogging/whipping anymore.
But then, I'm not planning on going to prison any time in my life either.

You mean when they get out of the hospital. 10 lashes isn't pretty.

 

[FA_Q2]

One other thought - anyone who has any doubts about the authoritarian aspects of today's conservatism, need only read a few of the posts on this thread by some of our conservative friends. Nuff said.

Care to point out those posts there George. This is a criticism that you use often but rarely substantiate.

 

[Two Thumbs]

One other thought - anyone who has any doubts about the authoritarian aspects of today's conservatism, need only read a few of the posts on this thread by some of our conservative friends. Nuff said.

Please list the post number that you feel is authortarian.

fyi; Anachronism is a proud authortarian, but has little to no support from other conservatives that take his veiws as being the opposite of what freedom loving cons prefer.

 

[Momanohedhunter]

Remember Michael Fay ? I wonder if he will ever vandalize road signs and cars in Singapore again ?

Michael P. Fay - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As a first offender in this country he would have maybe done 30 days in jail and moved on to bigger and better crimes (as he did after coming back to the US). I bet he wont misbehave in Singapore again.