

Bring back the lash – Why flogging is more humane than prison - eru
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/mayjune_2011/features/bring_back_the_lash029136.php?page=all

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dalke
That's bunkum. Flogging is a specific punishment. "Prison" has a wide range of
meanings. The idea seems to be that the US prison system is barbaric, so why
not swap that form of barbarism for something which is cheaper.

Rather than, you know, fixing the prison system and the laws which make the US
have the highest, or nearly highest, incarceration rate in the world.

Remember though that the author's reference comparison is: "Our rate of
incarceration is roughly seven times that of Canada or any Western European
country." The incarceration rate in Singapore is 233/100K. The US has 707/100K
(but see the note at
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcerat...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate#United_States)
).

By comparison, Canada: 118, France: 103, England&Wales: 148, Ireland: 89,
Germany: 87, Sweden: 64.

Setting the barbarity aside, if the best that flogging could do is to get the
incarceration rate down to 200/100K while prison and law reforms can bring the
incarceration rate down to 100/100K - I'll assume that Singapore and Canada
are equally lovely places to live - then flogging isn't the way to go.

