{"id":3071,"date":"2011-05-05T16:15:58","date_gmt":"2011-05-06T00:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=3071"},"modified":"2011-05-05T16:15:58","modified_gmt":"2011-05-06T00:15:58","slug":"punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2011\/05\/05\/punishment","title":{"rendered":"Punishment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chinese<\/a>I recent\u00adly read an arti\u00adcle in the Chron\u00adi\u00adcle of High\u00ader Edu\u00adca\u00adtion called \u201cIn Defense of Flog\u00adging<\/a>\u201d by Peter Moskos<\/a>, a for\u00admer police offi\u00adcer and now a crim\u00adi\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgist at the City Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty of New York (specif\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly at the John Jay Col\u00adlege of Crim\u00adi\u00adnal Jus\u00adtice<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The arti\u00adcle seems to have been writ\u00adten to gin up inter\u00adest in a book he has com\u00ading out in June called, well, In Defense of Flog\u00adging<\/a>. <\/p>\n

With\u00adout fur\u00adther ado, an excerpt:<\/p>\n

For most of the past two cen\u00adturies, at least in so-called civ\u00adi\u00adlized soci\u00adeties, the ide\u00adal of pun\u00adish\u00adment has been replaced by the hope of reha\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtion. The Amer\u00adi\u00adcan pen\u00adi\u00adten\u00adtiary sys\u00adtem was invent\u00aded to replace pun\u00adish\u00adment with \u201ccure.\u201d Pris\u00adons were built around the noble ideas of reha\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtion. In soci\u00adety, at least in lib\u00ader\u00adal soci\u00adety, we\u2019re sup\u00adposed to be above pun\u00adish\u00adment, as if pun\u00adish\u00adment were some\u00adhow beneath us. The fact that pris\u00adons proved both inhu\u00admane and mis\u00ader\u00adably inef\u00adfec\u00adtive did lit\u00adtle to deter the utopi\u00adan enthu\u00adsi\u00adasm of those reform\u00aders who wished to abol\u00adish pun\u00adish\u00adment.<\/p>\n

Incar\u00adcer\u00ada\u00adtion, for adults as well as chil\u00addren, does lit\u00adtle but make peo\u00adple more crim\u00adi\u00adnal. Alas, so suc\u00adcess\u00adful were the \u201cpro\u00adgres\u00adsive\u201d reform\u00aders of the past two cen\u00adturies that today we don\u2019t have a sys\u00adtem designed for pun\u00adish\u00adment. Cer\u00adtain\u00adly released pris\u00adon\u00aders need help with life\u2014jobs, hous\u00ading, health care\u2014but what they don\u2019t need is a failed con\u00adcept of \u201creha\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtion.\u201d Pris\u00adons today have all but aban\u00addoned reha\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtive ideals\u2014which isn\u2019t such a bad thing if one sees the notion as noth\u00ading more than pater\u00adnal\u00adis\u00adtic hog\u00adwash. All that is left is pun\u00adish\u00adment, and we cer\u00adtain\u00adly could pun\u00adish in a way that is much cheap\u00ader, hon\u00adest, and even more humane. We could flog.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes. He just argued for flog\u00adging as a more enlight\u00adened view than impris\u00adon\u00adment.<\/p>\n

Pause for a moment to let your brain adjust to that.<\/p>\n

Trou\u00adbled? Get ready \u2014 he\u2019s about to own you.<\/p>\n

\nThe open\u00ading gam\u00adbit of the book is sur\u00adpris\u00ading\u00adly sim\u00adple: If you were sen\u00adtenced to five years in prison but had the option of receiv\u00ading lash\u00ades instead, what would you choose? You would prob\u00ada\u00adbly pick flog\u00adging. Would\u00adn\u2019t we all?<\/p>\n

I pro\u00adpose we give con\u00advicts the choice of the lash at the rate of two lash\u00ades per year of incar\u00adcer\u00ada\u00adtion. One can\u00adnot rea\u00adson\u00adably argue that mere\u00adly offer\u00ading this choice is some\u00adhow cru\u00adel, espe\u00adcial\u00adly when the sta\u00adtus quo of incar\u00adcer\u00ada\u00adtion remains an option. Prison means los\u00ading a part of your life and every\u00adthing you care for. Com\u00adpared with this, flog\u00adging is just a few very painful strokes on the back\u00adside. And it\u2019s over in a few min\u00adutes. Often, and often very quick\u00adly, those who said flog\u00adging is too cru\u00adel to even con\u00adsid\u00ader sud\u00adden\u00adly say that flog\u00adging isn\u2019t cru\u00adel enough.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I found the arti\u00adcle fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00ading and have been telling peo\u00adple about it since I read it. And I\u2019ve asked them if they would per\u00adson\u00adal\u00adly pre\u00adfer flog\u00adging to prison. Every\u00adone I have posed the ques\u00adtion to has opt\u00aded for excru\u00adci\u00adat\u00ading phys\u00adi\u00adcal pain. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve long been fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00aded by the dif\u00adfer\u00adent notions of jus\u00adtice. I remem\u00adber hear\u00ading Jim Rai\u00adley<\/a> argue quite con\u00advinc\u00ading\u00adly in sem\u00adi\u00adnary that the prop\u00ader Chris\u00adt\u00adian notion of jus\u00adtice is pri\u00admar\u00adi\u00adly ret\u00adribu\u00adtive (pun\u00adish\u00adment-ori\u00adent\u00aded) rather than reha\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtive. Not that Chris\u00adtians are opposed to reha\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtion \u2014 but we ought to think of reha\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtion as a func\u00adtion of mer\u00adcy and not of jus\u00adtice. Per\u00adhaps some\u00adtimes we should pur\u00adsue mer\u00adcy instead of jus\u00adtice, and oth\u00ader times we should offer mer\u00adcy fol\u00adlow\u00ading jus\u00adtice. But we should\u00adn\u2019t pre\u00adtend that they are iden\u00adti\u00adcal.<\/p>\n

Inci\u00adden\u00adtal\u00adly, if you con\u00adceive of jus\u00adtice in pure\u00adly reha\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtive terms then you prob\u00ada\u00adbly can\u2019t believe in hell or in cap\u00adi\u00adtal pun\u00adish\u00adment. If, on the oth\u00ader hand, you believe that jus\u00adtice is essen\u00adtial\u00adly ret\u00adribu\u00adtive then both are viable intel\u00adlec\u00adtu\u00adal options for you. <\/p>\n

Agree with Dr. Moskos or not, you should at least read the whole arti\u00adcle<\/a>. There\u2019s way more than I\u2019ve quot\u00aded here. I should also note that he does\u00adn\u2019t seem to be seri\u00adous\u00adly argu\u00ading for flog\u00adging itself so much as he is argu\u00ading for fix\u00ading our bro\u00adken crim\u00adi\u00adnal jus\u00adtice sys\u00adtem. Con\u00adsid\u00ader his con\u00adclu\u00adsion:<\/p>\n

\n\u2026how can offer\u00ading crim\u00adi\u00adnals the choice of the lash in lieu of incar\u00adcer\u00ada\u00adtion be so bad? If flog\u00adging were real\u00adly worse than prison, nobody would choose it. Of course most peo\u00adple would choose the rat\u00adtan cane over the prison cell. And that\u2019s my point. Faced with the choice between hard time and the lash, the lash is bet\u00adter. What does that say about prison?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All in all, a phe\u00adnom\u00ade\u00adnal essay.<\/p>\n

On a relat\u00aded note, you should read my thoughts on the per\u00adva\u00adsive insan\u00adi\u00adty of pro\u00adfes\u00adsors<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recent\u00adly read an arti\u00adcle in the Chron\u00adi\u00adcle of High\u00ader Edu\u00adca\u00adtion called \u201cIn Defense of Flog\u00adging\u201d by Peter Moskos, a for\u00admer police offi\u00adcer and now a crim\u00adi\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgist at the City Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty of New York (specif\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly at the John Jay Col\u00adlege of Crim\u00adi\u00adnal Jus\u00adtice). The arti\u00adcle seems to have been writ\u00adten to gin up inter\u00adest in \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cPun\u00adish\u00adment\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-of-random-interest"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-Nx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3071"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3103,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3071\/revisions\/3103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}