Incarceration as Punishment

In America, the last use of corporal punishment occurred in Delaware in 1952. The Supreme Court considered the act of flogging to be both cruel and unusual and outlawed it. In all of the States of the Union the punishment for crime is now either imprisonment or death. In almost all of those states the vast majority are incarcerated in a space of less than 8' x 4' with another prisoner sharing the space. As a result of incarceration of men, who constitute the vast majority of the prison population, more than 140,000 of the men are subjected to rape out of the estimated 230,000 that are raped in a given year. Because of the gangs and the use of violence and intimidation, almost all the men and women are forced into a degree of slavery and learn to be more violent, more street savvy, and more evil. There is no real effort at rehabilitation and therefore most institutions are neither correctional nor penitential; they are simply prisons. People are put into prison primarily because someone in society is afraid of them and not because they have committed a crime. Fear, which dominates life in our so-called free society, is much more manifest in our decision to incarcerate. The yearly cost of incarceration is between $45,000 and $55,000 per prisoner per year. There are more than 2,000,000 persons in prison in America. thus the cost of imprisonment is roughly $110,000,000,000 per year. That amount exceeds the amount of the deficit in the state budgets by more than 30%. Because we provide so few public defenders and pay them so poorly, many people go to jail that would not go to jail if they could afford lawyers that did not have case loads of 120 cases per year. 

It is hard to claim that our current prisons provide humane living arrangements. Our pets are treated better than our prisoners. It is hard to justify the incarceration of persons who possess drugs, who commit embezzlement, who set up Ponzi schemes, and who are not violent in their actions. The only possible reason for incarcerating these people is because we are afraid of them. Restoring corporal punishment for non-violent crimes would reduce the outlay for prisons by at least one half, would keep the offender from being trained in worse behavior by more dominant and violent criminals, and would allow for almost immediate return of the offender to his job so that he could support his family and self. The current prison method is unscriptural and contrary to the revealed Word of G-d.  The current prison method encourages rape and slavery. The current system makes no since in the case of rapists who are subsequently raped. Why don't their rapists get punished?

From my high mountain, I urge Congress and the various state legislatures to specifically restore corporal punishment as a method of reducing prison overcrowding. I propose that all violent sex offenders be housed together in one person cells and be more closely watched. I propose that life sentences be abolished and each prisoner be judged by his ability to make progress toward rehabilitation as is done in Europe. Lastly, I urge conjugal visits for all prisoners who are in civil unions or marriages at the time of their incarceration.