Bring Back Flogging

Without the use of these statistics, Jacoby would not be able to suggest such a solution and effectively convey his point. As a result, Jacoby proves that through his research, he is qualified to make his arguments against prisons.

Jacoby’s argument of flogging attempts to show how it can be more productive over the conventional method of punishment seemingly the only way, imprisonment. His beliefs are that public whippings will prevent youths and first time offenders from becoming lifelong felons. The benefits deduced from his argument for flogging assuming it proves to be conclusive would be such. Lowering the rate of felons in jail, freeing up space for the more violent offenders. The appalling estimated amount of thirty thousand a year per inmate would be saved. A public whipping would not be associated with respect and sign of manhood or status symbol that prison serves for many offenders. Flogging he believes would deter many of the first time offenders and youth along with preventing them from being repeat and long time offenders. The pain, scars, and embarrassment of public whippings would far exceed the value or risk reward benefit of doing a petty crime thus forcing people to think about their actions before they did it. Jacoby contends that he is unsure whether being whipped is more degrading that being caged. At the end of his essay he draws attention to the point of the terrible risk of being raped in prison as an argument in favor of replacing imprisonment with flogging.

Prison is an important place, because it takes away the power from individuals. This means that the criminal is no longer acting upon his will, but that of the officers, judge, guards, etc. “They are the foundation of society, and an element in its equilibrium.” (215) All the techniques, when created, they “attained a level at which formation of knowledge and the increase of power regularly reinforce the other.” (216)

     Jeff Jacoby seems accustomed with using words as tools for undermining that which he opposes. By using the word “cage” frequently, he ascribes a negative connotation to the act of imprisoning people. He successfully taunts us with images of defenseless animals locked within inhospitable quarters, and hopes that the image will fuel the readers’ probable fear of human rights violations. Another statement within the fourth paragraph, which I see as an attempt to fool people, is when he says, “ Crime is out of control, despite the deluded happy talk by some politicians.” This sentence come out sounding as if it were a fact, when in actuality it is his opinion based on feelings rather than data. I also see an attempt to discount the authority of politicians by calling them deluded. Again there is an absence of support available for either of these two opinions.

Throughout the entire essay, Jacoby uses a very purposeful and believable tone. It is clear that he is avid on supporting the start of flogging as punishment, and lowers the prison rates. He uses evidence to display how prison is bad and how terrible some criminals can be to each other. The writer uses fair evidence to describe how the prison is bad, however his evidence is not fair toward flogging. Jacoby needs to add more details on why flogging would be benefited because he only used short explanations or none at all. He came across as a bit bias toward flogging over prison, which would be prosecuted easier if he said a few aspects of the prison system that was alright and discussed flogging more. Jacoby proves his point, but does not at the same time. He clearly states that the justice system needs to be changed and he thinks flogging would be better. However he needs to go deeper into the topic to fully declare one better than the other.

In “Bring Back Flogging,” the author, Jeff Jacoby suggests that people should adopt some of the Puritans tactics to punish criminals instead of putting them in prison. Jacoby is basing his claim on the use of irony, logos, and ethos. According to Jeff Jacoby, a moment of humiliation is better than a couple of years behind bars. I do not agree with Jeff Jacoby’s argument because the examples he gives and the way he refers to the topic incite readers to violence, also during the development of the subject he is too contradictory with his own opinions making his arguments unclear.

This statement could be begging the question whether or not criminals really become more violent after prison, but more often than not the statement is true. Addressing the cost, he states that a common estimate is $30,000 per inmate per year (Jacoby 193). This is an implied generalization that the prison system is a waste of money. The Globe reported in 1994 that more than two hundred thousand prison inmates are raped each year, usually to the indifference of the guards (Jacoby 194). Jacoby uses this statement to show that prison life has unimaginable horrors. His logos is strong using statistics to address the deficiencies of the system and deductive reasoning throughout the essay to persuade the reader to his hypothesis. He also appeals to his credibility as a writer by showing his own argument would not be effective in every situation, stating “there would be no cachet in chaining a criminal to a whipping post” (Jacoby 194). He shows that he has logically thought about his position and weighed the pros and cons associated with it. Because of this Jacoby is seen as a credible writer, if not a very sarcastic one.

However, Jeff Jacoby says something true, the criminal justice system has a problem, but violence is not the solution. As a result, Jacoby made a great use of logos on paragraph 6 where he points out the consequences of incarceration, “…the price of keeping criminals in cages is appalling – a common estimate is $30,000 per inmate per year,” also, he supports that statement on paragraph 12, “The Globe reported in 1994 that more than two hundred thousand prison inmates are raped each year…” he says, on that same fact, Jacoby is using ethos suggesting that the information reported by The Globe, the newspaper for which he works, is truthful. With these two statements he almost got the reader, but again he contradicts himself saying that is not the inmates fault, “…usually to the indifference of the guards,” he adds. So, why should prisoners be punished if it is not their fault?

Jacoby claims the imprisonment system has far more inhumanities than flogging. He berates the prison system’s inadequacies, such as the ever-growing prison population, prisoner yearly

To reintroduce the act of flogging, a form of punishment used centuries ago by several civilizations throughout the world. That is the argument held by Jeff Jacoby in his article “Bring Back Flogging” where he would like to use this method instead of prison sentencing. I believe that for many reasons, this could be an effective change from the criminal and prison system.

Jacoby states Over 1.6 million Americans are behind bars today, and most of them are nonviolent criminals. Jacoby explains that “more than 200,000 prison inmates are raped each year, usually to the indifference of the guards.” (Jacoby, 1997) Brutality is already a part of the prison life. Nonviolent criminals are getting send to prison, and must deal with the prison life where they are beaten, raped, or murder. Jacoby points out that bringing back flogging can give a person a chance to choose for the first offense puritan’s style of punishment or prison life. “Flogging can be humiliating and painful, but very quick and cheap.” (Jacoby, 1997) I disagree that flogging can a better solution than going to jail. Flogging can be a health risk. How many lashes before dying? That is very horrifying to think about. Flogging is evil and can revolve back to slavery. People would suffer from a sting of the whip for several years. Flogging would be hard to get over, even though going to prison can be on your

Flogging is a term for beating someone with a whip or cane across someone's back to cause pain. Flogging is corporal punishment because the person is beaten, but not to death(Corrections in America, page 8). Flogging was used in all sorts of settings such as, domestic military, and academic. Flogging was used for discipline. Long ago Spartans were flogged to prove how manly they were. It was a test to show there strength. Flogging would also be used to extract confessions. Flogging is still practiced in Singapore, Europe, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia.

Moreover, I cannot agree with the author that flogging has more educational value than imprisonment. First-time offenders who never held plans to go into a professional criminal career can become so angry and aggravated after a public flogging that they may seek out revenge on those acquaintances who watched their punishment. As a result of public humiliation and disgrace, these offenders are likely to enter a cycle of violence fueled by hate and frustrations towards those who inflicted the punishment and those who witnessed it. The only educational lesson that flogging can teach is hate and violence; therefore, flogging does not have more positive educational impact than imprisonment.

A columnist for the Boston Globe, Jeff Jacoby, in his article, “Bring Back Flogging” published on the op-ed page on February 20, addresses the issue of the deficiency of today’s criminal justice system and attempts to persuade us to bring back flogging as a punishment for certain crime. However, though his syllogism might arouse the reader and educate them on the need for reform, but it fails to convince the reader that corporal punishment is the best option.

In the essay written by Jeff Jacoby in “Bring back Flogging” The article is about how our prisons are over populated with people that are in there because of the none violence crime, which make the inmates to have higher chance of getting rape, beaten, or murder rather than getting whipped and embarrassment in public, that could help them to make better choice in the future and also teaches the public to behave the way that is acceptable in the society. Plus the cost that is associated with these inmates to keep them in prison that cost the tax payers millions of dollars every year.