Summary Of Mr. Jacoby Bring Back Flogging

Is Flogging Out Of The Question? When we think of any kind of punishment for a legal crime, we do not think of anything that will involve any kind of physical pain, for the most part, mainly imprisonment. The exception to the rule would have to be the states that allow electrocution, gas chamber, hanging and firing squad, which Oklahoma and Utah still allow. Most states still practice the death penalty, the lethal injection being the primary source, of course for very serious crimes. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, eighteen states have abolished the death penalty, with the most recent being Maryland in 2013; thirty two states still allow it, including U.S. Government and U.S. Military. However, this change is not retroactive,

Mr. Jacoby starts his essay, Bring Back Flogging, by giving a little bit of a history lesson on how the Puritans handled “crimes.” They ranged from whipping in public to branding of the cheeks, for “crimes” like selling arms, blasphemy, and adultery. Even though now a days we would see all this as abuse or a crime itself. He uses the term, “flogged,” when writing about how offenders were punished. He writes: “The day is long past when the stocks had an honored place on the Boston Common, or when offenders were publicly flogged” (para. 2). The problem I see with this term is that he does not take the time to explain or define what he means by flogged. For all I know flogging might be beating a “criminal” with a stick, but might mean for Jacoby to tie someone up and whipping them. As he mentions on his essay, he is pro-flogging, or as I interpret it, he wants punishments be of those that inflict pain other that people being sent to a “cage” as he

“If young punks were horsewhipped in public after their first conviction, fewer of them would harden into lifelong felons” (para. 8). This is were I definitely agree with Jacoby. Just like having children, we need to discipline them when they do something wrong. There is a difference between abuse and a firm hand. What the Puritans did was abuse, we can even go as far as to say that it was torture; what Jacoby is proposing, is a firm hand. There is a bigger impact when the issue is address at start. So if a young kid gets caught for stealing maybe a few lashes in public would embarrass him and set him straight. Of course there are always times where this will not work, the exception to the rule. However, I have this theory: “pain retains,” this mean that people do not want to be subject to painful acts, so they will learn to do something or not to do something. This act of “flogging” is quick and cheap, like mentioned by Jacoby. “A humiliating and painful paddling can be applied to the rear end of a crook for a lot less than $30,000 - and prove a lot more educational than ten years’ worth of prison meals and