Isn't it freakin' marvelous, just how much entertainment a crapped out AM radio can bring? Driving home from the Sunshine Coast, I heard on a show called Counter Point, of a bloke who wanted to bring back flogging. He said the the present way we do things doesn't work. The prison of today is a byproduct of an age of enlightenment. Floggings and torture were all the rage, but public opinion began to turn against the way things were being done, and you can't blame them, for they were usually the ones at the end of the line, copping the cat o' nine tails. So it was decided by the fair minded of the time, to make prisons places of rehabilitation. Nice sentiments, but stupid all the same. Take a person who's broken the law, toss him into a walled off edifice full of other criminals, and expect a better class of person to emerge? Not bloody likely. Of course it was going to fail. It did fail. So we just gave up and threw away the key. Out of sight, out of mind! Not only did the system back flush it's own excrement, it also charged the cost to the good folk who had to pay taxes. Talk about the f u c k e r s, f u c k i n g the f u c k e d. In the first world today, prison numbers have over the decades, usually climbed. So much so, that now in the United States there are more people in prison than in the Armed Services. At roughly $30,000 per Annam, per person, the cost is enormous. There has to be a better way. And there are no end of ways of cutting the number, mostly by a change of the laws of the land. How many fine defaulters, swindlers, drug addicts and the like are housed at out expense? These are subjects than can be debated. Some will stand the test of scrutiny, others will fall in a heap. There is one idea that I'd like to raise, flogging. If given the choice of a few strokes of the rattan or a year in the slammer, which would you take? So I ask, should flogging make its way back onto the penal books?
I'm afraid that would only work for small sentences... I only believe in prison for violent crimes or sex offences (rape, *****philia,...), or serious re-offenders. There's no need to lock people up for shop-lifting or small-scale fraud, let alone drug dealing. I still believe some people aren't fit for society (I've met a few) and am sometimes for the death penalty. If someone is going to dedicate their life to ruining other people's, then they don't deserve theirs. All prison does is defer the problem...
How many times do we hear Politicians pushing the crime theme on or about election time? They just prey on fear. They are directly responsible for the problem.
Murderers, rapists, *****s, kidnappers, serious violent offenders, drug dealers, armed robbers and burglars should all be executed without question. Scum the lot of them.
The prison population in America is so huge because they don't have a proper welfare state - the have nots have to steal and fight with each other over limited shared resources. Many people see long term dole dependents as the scum of the Earth for stealing from the government, and they blame the system. I believe that if we, as a nation, were not paying these people to be bone idol then they'd probably be a bigger social problem and cost us more money than the 60 quid dole cheque every week. The truth is that all people are not born equal, some people are born stupid and we as a society will always have to deal with them in some way, whether it be prison or Disability Living Allowance for having a sore little toe. Of course there are the people who are born capable but their upbringing leads them astray. I don't believe we have a lot of these in modern day Britain - I know from my own humble background that the state provides adequate education facilities to allow the more mentally capable to be socially mobile even if they come from a disadvantaged background. I've a few friends who grew up with single parents on benefits and have went on to University, despite their parents rather than because of them. It's the big state which provides the nurture in the absence of capable parenting, and the yanks are missing this trick.
- Legalise drugs, from cannabis to heroin - Have a fairer tax system - Legalise prostitution - Pass legislation to stop lawyers/solicitors abusing the system for their own financial gain Flogging etc. never stopped criminals reoffending in the past and it wont stop them now.
The flogging part of the article, is not so much a push for whipping, but an eye catching headline to open up discussion on the penal system. But if in the extreme, someone chose a flogging instead of a year in the hole, at a cost of tens of thousands to the tax payer, then why not?
I remember when I was 14 I came home pissed one night having drank a half bottle of Vodka. My mate was with me and my ma quickly squealed to his ma, as they do. The next day I met my mate in school and he had a black eye. His ma had beat the absolute **** out of him and told him that was the end of the matter - whereas I was grounded for a month and my parents wouldn't even speak to me. They didn't speak a ****ing word to me for a month - I remember wishing that they would of just beat the crap out of me and let it be done...
You should undergo some sort of rehabilitation just for that! As for your point about people being executed straightaway are you talking about after a trial or just after the police have arrested and charged them?
True. But I bet you wouldn't be saying that if it was someone you loved. Say your wife/girlfriend or a child for example.
