In The Eyes of Others

The U.S incarcerates more adults that any other country in the world. According to the International Centre for Prison Studies there are approximately 2.2 million adults in jail in this country today. With this huge number of people in the U.S serving time many judges are scrounging to find alternative ways of punishment to reduce the over 50 billion dollar budget that these jails cost the taxpayers each year. One controversial new method is the use of public humiliation or “shaming”. These sentences are often left up to the assailant to either choose a humiliating punishment or to serve time in jail. Some examples may include wearing a sandwich board claiming that you stole from a store or announcing to your neighbors that you bought pot with your children in the car. These unique punishments may be a cheap reliable way to keep crime rates down as well as keeping unnecessary people out of the prison population.

Prison is an expensive was to punish someone. Today the annual cost to run the U.S. prison system is over 50 billion dollars. This takes a huge cut out of the annual budget in the U.S. if this amount of money was cut in half just imagine what else could be created with that money. New schools for our children, rehabilitation clinics for drug users, or maybe an upgraded space program all these would be possible with just part of the money being spent on keeping people in jail. Shaming could be a cheap alternative to locking people up for a prolong period of time. This may allow convicts to contribute to society in a more responsible way. Some argue that we can have these criminals do volunteer work to let them contribute to society and let them see the outcomes of their crimes. This is an incomplete thought as Dan M. Kaha...

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... your friends or fellow students. Peer pressure and shame can go hand in hand if used properly it can help change the mindset of many criminal offenders.

In conclusion shame may not be a perfect punishment for all minor criminal offenders. But to totally exclude the idea as an effective tool for dealing with many minor crimes is a close minded approach. I believe that shame can be an effective punishment if used properly the benefits of an alternative massively outweighs the small fixable consequences that it may have.

Works Cited

Hunt, Katrrina Brown. “Peer Presure:How it Affects You.” WebMd, Ed. William Fredette MD. Web. 1 May 2014.

Kahan, Dan M. “Shame is Worth a Try.” Models for Writers. Ed. Alfred Rosa, Paul Eschholz.Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012 574-577. Print.

Zurcher, Anthony. “US Prison Rates an Injustace.” BBC, Ed. Echo Chambers. Web. 1 May 2014.