Prison as a Deterrent
Some years ago a US boy, 18-year-old Michael
Fay, was charged in Singapore with vandalism. Fay was arrested in Singapore
in October 1994 for 53 counts of vandalism including spray-painting cars. After
pleading guilty to reduced charges he was sentenced to four months in prison,
a $2,230 fine and six strokes from a cane made of bamboo-like strips. The punishment
usually leaves permanent scars and has been labeled torture by human-rights
groups. The cane is around six feet long and one inch wide and is used on the
buttocks. There was an outcry from the then President Clinton and from certain
sections of the public within the US. It was, they said, a barbaric sentence
that a civilised country such as Singapore should not be using. On appeal the
sentence was reduced to three strokes but this was still considered to be barbaric.
Depending on which state within the US he was sentenced, he could have been
let off with a fine or community service. If he were imprisoned he would mix
with hardened criminals, and would probably be raped in jail. Is this not a
barbaric sentence? There's an element of hypocrisy in the Western attitude to
sentencing. Firstly, the cane as a punishment has been around for a long time
in Singapore. The objection was that an American should be subject to this –
apparently its OK for the natives. Secondly, what goes on in prisons in the
US, and in many Western countries, is barbaric. Bullying, rape and torture are
commonplace, and sometimes even murder.
"The horrors experienced by many young inmates, particularly those who are convicted of nonviolent offenses, border on the unimaginable. Prison rape not only threatens the lives of those who fall prey to their aggressors, but it is potentially devastating to the human spirit. Shame, depression, and a shattering loss of self-esteem accompany the perpetual terror the victim thereafter must endure."U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Farmer v. Brennan
This is just the men. Rape and violence against women in prisons is even worse.
Amnesty International reports caning as being ‘Cruel and Unusual Punishment’
(the wording, presumably, comes from the US constitution). So far as I'm aware
it makes no such comment on male rape in prisons.
Prison is not a deterrent, in fact it is a training ground where criminals can
make new contacts and beginners can be trained in the arts. It is acknowledged
that there is a ‘revolving door’ when it comes to sentencing. Prisoners serve
their time, go back into the community, reoffend and then go back to prison.
They even become institutionalised and become unable to cope with the outside
world. But as long as this goes on behind closed doors we can kid ourselves
that this is ‘civilised’ and we’re not like these barbaric eastern countries,
some of whom argent even Christian!
