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.
He supports his argument by providing some good amount of evidences; however, he seems to go with some week witnesses. The first reason he points out that about 1.6 million Americans were in jail that year (1997) which represented “a 250 percent increase in 1980, and the number is climbing” (par 3). Obviously, at this argument he wants to demonstrate the weakness of the federal justice system when using imprisonment for “almost every offense in the criminal code” (par 3). However, his assumption is quite vague in his first argument. We cannot literally say that the increase in the number of prisoners means the increase of crime. Besides that, he cannot assume that capturing more and more criminals and putting them in jail is a bad thing. Secondly, Jacoby also attempts to use statistics to support this opinion. By saying the common estimate cost of one inmate is approximately $30,000 per year, he implies that the U.S federal justice system have spent too much money on inmates, and that the whole imprisonment system is
In “Bring back flogging” Jeff Jacoby argues that corporal punishment should be brought back into our justice system because imprisoning criminals is taking up too much of tax payers money and criminals learn how to become better criminals in prison. He uses statistics, facts, and quotes to help support his claim that our justice system is sub par and does more harm than good to taxpayers and even criminals. Even though Jacoby makes a good point the essay fails to include ethos and pathos making it ineffective. Although he supports what he says with hard facts and statistics he fails to gain an emotional connection with the readers nor does he establish his credibility. Logos is important in an essay because readers are more capable of making
While this continues, Jeff states that it does not cost a penny to flog a criminal. While strengthening his article, Jeff uses several illustrations and appeals to logos, while continuing his arguments. If the prison system was effective, then why:” Fifty-eight percent of all murders do not result in a prison term. Likewise, 98 percent of all burglaries.” (sources: Bring back flogging by Jeff Jacoby).
In the Article “Bring Back Flogging” Jeff Jacoby attempts to persuade readers that flogging is the best solution than going to prison. He explains that prison is a dangerous place. Jeff Jacoby is very passionate about bringing back flogging and how it can save money. I agree that flogging can help people change but I disagree that it would decrease crimes.
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.
In Jeff Jacoby’s essay Bring Flogging Back, he discusses whether flogging is the more humane punishment compared to prison. Jacoby uses clear and compelling evidence to describe why prisons are a terrible punishment, but he lacks detail and information on why flogging is better. In the essay he explains how crime has gotten out of hand over the past few decades, which has lead to the government building more prisons to lock up more criminals. His effort to prove that current criminal punishment is not perfect or even effective is nicely done, but he struggled with discussing ways that flogging could lower the crime rates and provide a safer environment for America.
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.
To add to this debauchery, he cites another misleading statistic in the last sentence of the paragraph. He declares, “ Fifty-eight percent of all murders do not result in a prison term. Like wise 98% of all burglaries.” What does this statement conjure up within your mind when you read it? It draws a picture of a convicted felon/murderer happily leaving the courtroom free to go. Is this the reality of the statement? Let’s think half-heartedly about the first sentence. Pay attention to the word “murders”, this implies that there is a murderer, and to be called a murderer
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.
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.
The average cost of keeping a single prisoner incarcerated in federal prison for a year is approximately $30,619.85 (Prisons Bureau, and Department of Justice). Multiply that number by the approximate 2,217,000 prisoners currently incarcerated and the cost of long sentences required by mandatory minimums starts to add up (Federal Bureau of Prisons).
This unfair legislature depletes law enforcement resources, that instead could be utilized for other serious crimes. In federal prisons, it costs $29, 000 on average to maintain a single inmate, taking possession of 25% of the budget distributed to the Department of Justice. As written in the a Washington Post Article, US District Attorney Judge Mark Bennett stated that “he couldn’t forget was the total, more than 1,100 nonviolent offenders and counting to whom he had given mandatory minimum sentences he often considered unjust. That meant more than $200 million in taxpayer money he thought had been misspent.” . Apart from the financial aspect, mandatory minimum sentencing simply fills to reduce crime in society. Over the years, the amount of people arrested for drug offenses
The average cost of housing an inmate is approximately $20,000 to $30,000 per year. This price tag comes at the direct expense of public money that could be spent on public education, medical care and public assistance. And it is one reason why so many states face fiscal crises today. The state of California spends 2.5 times more money housing and feeding its inmates than it does educating students.The current unemployment rate in the US is high. And if we factored in all the people who are not looking for work because they are behind bars, it would be higher especially among young black Americans and people without a high school
in recent decades, violent crimes in the United States of America have been on a steady decline, however, the number of people in the United States under some form of correctional control is reaching towering heights and reaching record proportions. In the last thirty years, the incarceration rates in the United States has skyrocketed; the numbers roughly quadrupled from around five hundred thousand to more than 2 million people. (NAACP)In a speech on criminal justice at Columbia University, Hillary Clinton notes that, “It’s a stark fact that the United States has less than five percent of the world’s population, yet we have almost 25 percent of the world’s total prison population. The numbers today are much higher than they were 30, 40 years ago, despite the fact that crime is at historic lows.” (washington post) How could this be? Are Americans more prone to criminal activity than the rest of the world? How could they be more prone to criminal activity if crime rates have been dropping? Numbers like that should be cause for concern, because if crime rates are dropping then it is only logical for one to expect the number of incarceration to go down as well; unfortunately, the opposite is true. Shockingly, there seem to be a few people who actually profits from keeping people in jails. The practice of mass incarceration who most see as a major problem in the United States of America is actually beneficial to some. The prison system in the United States who was create to
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. In order to present his claim, Jacoby is based in the use of irony, logos, and ethos. According to Jeff Jacoby a moment of humiliation is better than a couple of years behind the bars. I do not agree with Jeff Jacoby’s argument because the examples he gives and the way he refers to the topic incite to violence, also during the development of the subject he is too contradictory with his own opinions, and his arguments are unclear.
In the New York Times editorial, “End Mass Incarceration Now”, The Editorial Board argues that there needs to be an immediate stop in the amount of people being incarcerated because there is injustice and it is costing too much money for the United States. The Editorial Board begun by saying that mass incarceration is causing societal and economic damage. They say that the sole reason why there is mass incarceration is because of injustice. The Editorial Board backed up this mass incarceration by bringing up an interesting statistics report by the National Academy of Sciences that stated how there has been a vast increase of the prison population in the United States since the late 1900s. The Editorial Board then mentioned how a big chunk of these prisoners were sentenced to prison for committing nonviolent crimes. They explain that the reasons for this is because of harsh sentencing due to politicians not wanting to be soft on crimes and the United States using incarceration as a way to solve its problems, based on a report by the Human Rights Watch. This all brings up the point that there is injustice in the United