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Should we bring back flogging in lieu of prison time?

Should we bring back flogging?

  • Yes, it is more humane than prison

    Votes: 2 15.4%

  • Yes, it will save the government money and/or reduce crime

    Votes: 3 23.1%

  • No, it is cruel and unusual punishment

    Votes: 4 30.8%

  • No, it is letting the offender off easy

    Votes: 3 23.1%

  • Other (please specify)

    Votes: 5 38.5%
  • Total voters
    13
American said:
Subject????? Talk about a distorted view.
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We have the highest incarceration rate BY FAR of any country in the world, and conditions in our prisons are hellish. So spare me the stupid **** about how we would be no better than Iran if we allowed flogging or some other punishment that we've arbitrarily decided is "cruel and unusual" (because there's obviously nothing cruel about locking a nonviolent offender in a cage where they can be raped). News flash: On this issue, we ARE no better than they are. The US is by far the biggest human rights violator in the world when it comes to criminal justice. I'd much rather be flogged by an Iranian cop than spend a few years in an American prison.

Now, since you objected to my saying that we "subject" such a high proportion of our population to prison, I assume that you're trying to tell me that they all deserve to be there. Well then that brings up another question: If you actually believe that, then what is it about our society that inspires so much more crime than every single other country on the planet? :roll:
 
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Nah, flogging is inefficient. Non violent criminals need to be put to work --- actually all prisoners violent or non-violent should be put to work, but not by private business and certainly not where money is exchanged between government and private business. They should be put to work as part of a rehabilitation and skill training program. Prisoners should be filling pot holes, cleaning up environmental disasters, doing labor on demo'd buildings, working on construction sites, all this with two intentions.

1. Putting these people to work and getting them out of the prison cells and inside gangs where they hone their criminal behavior
2. Training them and giving them a skill they can use on the outside when their sentence is fulfilled

This should not apply to lifers or death row inmates. Not sure what should be done with them if anything. The secondary part of this is as the prisoners leave jail, the state works with private business to hire these former inmates with good wages to do what they were trained in jail to do, and to continue on in that job. Critics say "work programs are inhumane" and I say BS. What's inhumane is locking these people up so they have to live in gang groups, swap notes and become better criminals.
 
A society can be judged on how well it treats its minorities and prisoners or criminals.
Do we wish to fail ?
Sadly, there are those of us who would see us regress.
This I find disgusting !
Instead of prisoners and punishments, we must work on prevention, child care and protective services must be improved as necessary.
Children must be respected, they are our most valuable resource...
Flogging ?
Ask the criminals, how do they feel about this ?
 
Ockham said:
Nah, flogging is inefficient. Non violent criminals need to be put to work --- actually all prisoners violent or non-violent should be put to work, but not by private business and certainly not where money is exchanged between government and private business. They should be put to work as part of a rehabilitation and skill training program. Prisoners should be filling pot holes, cleaning up environmental disasters, doing labor on demo'd buildings, working on construction sites, all this with two intentions.

1. Putting these people to work and getting them out of the prison cells and inside gangs where they hone their criminal behavior
2. Training them and giving them a skill they can use on the outside when their sentence is fulfilled

This should not apply to lifers or death row inmates. Not sure what should be done with them if anything. The secondary part of this is as the prisoners leave jail, the state works with private business to hire these former inmates with good wages to do what they were trained in jail to do, and to continue on in that job. Critics say "work programs are inhumane" and I say BS. What's inhumane is locking these people up so they have to live in gang groups, swap notes and become better criminals.
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I definitely agree about putting them to work. I think that sentencing nonviolent prisoners to community service or some other kind of work would be MUCH more successful than what we do now (provided that it was in place of, rather than in addition to, prison time). Prisons are breeding grounds for more crime, and there is a profound feeling of hopelessness among prisoners who believe (often correctly) that they'll never be able to change their ways and succeed in the world because they have no marketable skills. The way that we run our criminal justice system practically guarantees more crime and poverty.
 
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earthworm said:
A society can be judged on how well it treats its minorities and prisoners or criminals.
Do we wish to fail ?
Sadly, there are those of us who would see us regress.
This I find disgusting !
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"Regress" implies that we've somehow made progress, by abandoning flogging in favor of cages and state-sanctioned rape.

earthworm said:
Flogging ?
Ask the criminals, how do they feel about this ?
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Yes, let's ask them how they feel about this. At least give them the option if they're guilty of a nonviolent crime. And I bet that the vast majority would prefer to be flogged than to endure the conditions in our prisons. What does it say about our prisons if people would rather be flogged?
 
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American said:
So we are less criminal society today than 200 years ago?
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Damned good question, and its hard to tell, there are so many variables..
I think we have made progress, so lets stay on that path.
 
Kandahar said:
Most offenders don't pose any threat in the first place. Most of them are nonviolent people who either A) are guilty of some bull**** crime that shouldn't be a crime in the first place, or B) are guilty of doing something stupid where they need SOME sort of punishment but don't need to be isolated from society.

I'm not saying that this should apply to EVERYONE...just the nonviolent offenders.Agree, but, IMO, flogging is a step back, this I fear



And cages/rape don't? Isn't flogging considerably less barbaric than that? If we go by the prisoner's own (assumed) preference for flogging over incarceration, it would seem that most people would consider prison time more cruel than flogging. So let's worry about replacing prison time with some less cruel alternative punishment - whether it's flogging or something else - before we worry about whether THOSE things are too cruel as well.
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...
The time is way past over due for prison reform.
This is a states-rights thing, for the governors to work on.....
Those governors who do nothing must be voted out of office and publicly censured(sp?)..

The people who advocate flogging should be flogged themselves...yes ! I do become emotional and stupid about this....
 
earthworm said:
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The people who advocate flogging should be flogged themselves...yes ! I do become emotional and stupid about this....
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I'm pretty sure the premise isn't so much that flogging is a terrific idea or the ideal replacement for prison for non-violent offenders -- it's just that it would be less traumatic and waste fewer resources.
 
I'd give it a shot, and see statistics on how things have changed.

I'm a firm believer that removing corporal punishment from our public schools was the downfall of our educational system. Kids as a whole may be stupid, but they're smart enough to know that the liberal way of just turning cheeks with no real potential threat of intervention allows them to do what they damn well please.

Nip it while they're young. When you remove an ass-whipping or taking a meterstick across the knuckles and replace it with a stern finger-wagging, you're encouraging this rebellious behavior later in life. I wouldn't mind seeing some real pain given to criminals, then determine if it's an effective deterrent. I guarantee you that the dude never spray-painted anything else in Singapore.
 
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