> What has happened in our country? There was a time when America was
> regarded as a model of civilized punishment. A century and a half ago,
> de Tocqueville was convinced that America would always be a model of
> mildness. In 1945 Americans could still look upon Germany and feel
> pride that we had not succumbed to the German sort of barbarism. Today
> things are very different. We incarcerate at a rate staggeringly
> higher than other Western countries. We criminalize a far wider range
> of conduct. We are a country known worldwide for our exceptionally
> punitive practices -- not least when it comes to degradation.
Very odd history. I don't know when America was ever regarded as "a model of civilized punishment." When the Quakers were throwing prisoners into solitary confinement in Philadelphia so they could reflect on their sins? When lynching was popular, in the South especially, but not only there?
de Tocqueville, as most of us are aware, was nutty as a fruitcake. And I would argue (though I know some will disagree) that the U.S. in 2004 is still morally superior to Nazi Germany. (By a tiny margin, perhaps.)
OTOH, it is true that we lock up way too many people -- many of them on drug "crimes" that shouldn't be crimes at all, IMHO. But there are many kinds of penal institutions in various parts of the country, due to the nature of the federal/local distinction here, which is not paralleled in many other countries; some treat prisoners much better than others.
From my participation in the anti-death-penalty movement, I know how extremely difficult it is to get improvements made in U.S. jails and prisons, because it's a subject that most Americans just don't want to think about. "Lock'em up and throw away the key" is a very popular attitude, sorry to say.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit, 'Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet; Nor ever ever shall, until that I die, For the longer I live the more fool am I. -- Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy (1684)