电子书下载格式:mobi+epub+pdf+txt
作者:PeterMoskos
出版时间:2011-6-23
书籍简介:
To punish criminals, we rely on an expensive, inefficient and vastly overcrowded prison system which does little but breed criminality. We need an alternative method of punishment that is cheaper, honest and more humane. We need to bring back flogging. Imagine you commit a nonviolent crime and are sentenced to five years in prison. During that time, you miss your daughter's graduation, your relationship with your spouse is severely strained, and you suffer acute emotional trauma from being locked up. While serving your time you may experience sexual or physical violence – or turn to drug use to pass the time. After you're released, you find it's difficult to adapt to the outside. Once a convict, always a convict. So doesn't a quick, ten-lash flogging sound like a much more appealing alternative? With "In Defense of Flogging", former Baltimore City police officer and crime prevention expert Peter Moskos proposes a revolutionary alternative to our broken system of criminal justice: "flog and release". He offers nonviolent criminals the option to be caned in exchange for a prison sentence. No criminal would be forced into flogging – it is simply a choice, an option, an alternative. Here's how it would work: Step 1: The criminal is arrested, processed, and convicted, and his danger to society is assessed. As long as he poses no threat to himself or others, he is offered a choice between the standard prison sentence and a set number of lashes. Moskos suggests a standard formula of two lashes per year incarcerated. For minor offences, the accused can simply accept a plea to be flogged and released. Step 2: Because we must be honest about punishment, flogging will be open to the public, albeit not in a celebratory atmosphere. The setting will be similar to a non-televised courtroom. Present will be the criminal, the victim, a doctor, lawyers, representatives of the court, and relatives of both parties. Step 3: A physician will examine the criminal to make sure that he can physically sustain the flogging. Step 4: The criminal's arms and legs will be fastened to a whipping post. A guard will remove the criminal's trousers and add a layer of padding to the criminal's back so that his vital organs are not harmed during the beating. A person trained in the lash will administer the punishment. Step 5: Once the lashing is over, the doctor will attend to the wounds and the criminal is free to return home. Justice has been served. With an argument that is at once boldly philosophical and devastatingly pragmatic, Moskos forces us to drastically rethink accepted notions of crime and punishment. Provocative and challenging, "In Defense of Flogging" has the potential to jump-start the stalled debate over our penal system and set us on a track to real change.
