In Defense of Flogging (16 page)

69
as high as the white poverty rate
: In 2009 the US Census defined poverty in the United States as an individual making less than $11,161, a couple $14,439, and a family of four $21,756. At $7.25 an hour, a full-time minimum wage job pays $15,080 a year.

70
arrested for marijuana possession
: See the work of Harry Levine of Queens College, including Harry G. Levine, Jon B. Gettman, and Loren Siegel,
Arresting Blacks for Marijuana
in California Possession Arrests in 25 Cities, 2006–08
, Drug Policy Alliance, 2010.

72
One in five Americans was a slave
: 18 percent, according to the 1790 census.

74
because of a past felony conviction
: Figures range from 827,000 to 960,000. The former is from Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen's
Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). The latter is from “Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States,” The Sentencing Project, 2010,
www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/fd_bs_fdlawsinusMarch2010.pdf
.

74
5.3 million Americans are denied the vote
: “Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States.”

74
“They don't vote, so, I guess, not really.”
: Sam Roberts, “Census Bureau's Counting of Prisoners Benefits Some Rural Voting Districts,”
New York Times
, October 23, 2008,
www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/us/politics/24census.html?_r=
1.

74
slavery, to segregation, to incarceration
: Loïc Wacquant,
Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity
(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009).

77
the business of incarceration
: Peter Wagner,
The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry
(Northampton, MA: The Prison Policy Initiative, 2003). To give but one example, the market to control collect calls from prisoners is $1 billion per year. Collect calls from jail and prison can cost dollars per minute. Part of the phone company's profit is then kicked back to the state or county in the form of a highest-bidder contract to provide phone service.

77
by building housing for the poor
: Eric Schlosser, “The Prison-Industrial Complex,”
The Atlantic
, December 1998. The term itself was coined by Mike Davis in “Hell Factories in the Field: The Prison Industrial Complex,”
Nation
, February 20, 1995.

78
literally and figuratively left and right
: Ben Carrasco and Joan Petersilia, “Assessing the CCPOA's Political Influence and Its Impact on Efforts to Reform the California Corrections System,” California Sentencing & Corrections Policy Series,
Stanford Criminal Justice Center Working Papers,
www.law.stanford.edu/program/centers/scjc/workiingpapers/BCarassco-wp4_06.pdf
.

78
correctional officer is a difficult job
: Ted Conover,
Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing
(New York: Riverhead, 2004). Conover worked as a correctional officer in Sing Sing, and
Newjack
is probably the best single account of a very difficult occupation.

79
to prosecute a guard for assault
: Stephen James, “Decline of the Empire,”
Sacramento News & Review
(March 17, 2005).

80
roughly the same level as unionized prison guards
:
Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010–11 Edition, Correctional Officers
(Washington, DC: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009),
www.bls.gov/oco/ocos156.htm
; Corrections Corporation of America, “CAA Announces Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2009 Financial Results,” press release, February 9, 2010,
http://ir.correctionscorp.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=117983&p=irol-newsArticle&id=1385706
. There is no reason to single out the Corrections Corporation of America. They are not the worst of the private prison companies, only the largest. In 2008 median annual wages for correctional officers in the public sector were $50,830 for the federal government, $38,850 for state government, and $37,510 for local government. For private prisons, median wages are $28,790.

80
turnover rate of 40 percent annually
: Wagner,
The Prison Index
. The comparable rate for the public sector is 15 percent.

81
“If we build it, they will come.”
: Robert B. Gunnison, “Privately Run Prison Planned for Mojave,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, August 1, 1997.

81
country illegally who were facing deportation
: Joseph T. Hallinan, “Federal Government Saves Private Prisons as State Convict Population Levels Off,”
Wall Street Journal
, November 6, 2001.

81
town residents in the 2000 census
: “California City Prison Gets $529 Million Federal Contract,”
www.ilovecaliforniacity.com/prison.html
.

81
federal contract to fill the beds with immigrants
: Corrections Corporation of America, “California City Correctional Center
to Remain Open,” press release, September 27, 2010,
www.correctionscorp.com/newsroom/news-releases/226
. On CCA's website (which looks a bit too much like a futuristic advertisement from the movie
Starship Troopers
), there is much pride in the rehabilitation programs. Yet for the life of me I cannot figure how to “rehabilitate” an immigrant.

81
such as Arizona's controversial SB-1070
: Laura Sullivan, “Prison Economics Help Drive Arizona Immigration Law,” National Public Radio,
Morning Edition
, October 28, 2010,
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741
.

84
medications when they were arrested
: Andrew P. Wilper, Steffie Woolhandler, J. Wesley Boyd, Karen E. Lasser, Danny Mc-Cormick, David H. Bor, and David U. Himmelstein, “The Health and Health Care of U.S. Prisoners: A Nationwide Survey,”
American Journal of Public Health
99, no. 4 (January 2009): 666–72.

86
soon reached the general public
: Jennifer Gonnerman, “The Lost Boys of Tryon: Inside New York's most infamous juvenile prison, where troubled kids—abused and forgotten—learn to become troubled adults,”
New York
, January 24, 2010.

87
full-time psychiatrist on staff
: Gonnerman, “The Lost Boys of Tryon.”

87
“facilities all across the country.”
: “Sentenced to Abuse,” Editorial,
New York Times,
January 14, 2010.

87
raped, mainly by staff members
: Allen J. Beck, Paige M. Harrison, and Paul Guerino, “Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008–09,” US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, January 2010.

87
and suicide attempts are routine
: Nicholas Confessore, “A Glimpse Inside a Troubled Youth Prison,”
New York Times
, February 12, 2010; Gonnerman, “The Lost Boys of Tryon.”

88
by the time they're twenty-eight
: Gonnerman, “The Lost Boys of Tryon.”

91
between a community and punishment
: Burrows and Wallace,
Gotham
, 367.

96
“to be there, don't commit the crime.”
: Richard Grant, “Banging Up the Bad Guys,”
The Independent,
May 21, 1995, 6.

96
deters crime or prevents recidivism
: John R. Hepburn and Marie L. Griffin, “Jail Recidivism in Maricopa County: A Report Submitted to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office,” Maricopa County, AZ, 1998.

96
doubled, to ten thousand prisoners
: Randal C. Archibold, “On Border Violence, Truth Pales Compared to Ideas,”
New York Times
, June 19, 2010.

97
Arpaio's policies garnered little hatred
: Marie L. Griffin,
The Use of Force by Detention Officers
(LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2001), 44.

100
back with the “cat-o'-nine-tails.”
:
The Progress
(Clearfield, PA), March 8, 1972, cited in Hal Roth, “Old News from Delmarva: The Whipping Post in Maryland and Delaware,”
Tidewater Times
, July 2006,
www.tidewatertimes.com/HalRothJuly2006.htm
. In other accounts the flogged criminal is listed, probably erroneously, as a wife beater.

101
“mode of whipping and pillory.”
:
Delaware Gazette
, November 11, 1853, 2.

101
here's the kicker—“legal abstractions.”
: Robert Graham Caldwell,
Red Hannah: Delaware's Whipping Post
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1947), 99.

104
were now . . . a hell to me
: Mary W. Shelley,
Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus
(Boston: Sever, Francis, & Co., 1869), 45–46.

106
meals to closing entire institutions
:
The Continuing Fiscal Crisis in Corrections: Setting a New Course,
Vera Institute of Justice, October 2010)
www.vera.org/download?file=3072/The-continuing-fiscal-crisis-in-corrections-10-2010-updated.pdf
.

107
and communist Cuba (530)
: Ron Walmsley,
World Prison Population List
, 8th ed. (London: International Centre for Prison Studies, King's College, 2010). Nobody is certain about how many prisons are in North Korea, which may have a higher incarceration rate than America.

107
five times the world's average
: Ron Walmsley,
World Prison Population List
. The world's incarceration rate is estimated at 150 per 100,000.

107
from 60 to 110 per 100,000
: Charles A. Ellwood, “Has Crime Increased in the United States Since 1880?”
Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology
1, no. 3 (September 1910), 379.

110
“imposes the punishment of flogging.”
: Antonin Scalia, “Originalism: The Lesser Evil,”
University of Cincinnati Law Review
57 (1989): 849–66.

110
“and not cruel and unusual, today.”
: Stephen Breyer,
Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View
(New York: Knopf Doubleday, 2010).

120
discretion, we make things worse
: Mandatory arrest for domestic violence became popular after the publication of the flawed Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment. But more recent experiments show the limitations of mandatory arrest and even mandatory prosecution. See Janell D. Schmidt and Lawrence W. Sherman, “Does Arrest Deter Domestic Violence?”
American Behavioral Scientist
36 (1993): 601–609; and Eve Buzawa and Aaron Buzawa, “Courting Domestic Violence Victims: A Tale of Two Cities,”
Criminology & Public Policy
7, no. 4 (2008), 671–85.

124
than a similar nonincarcerated person
: The Pew Charitable Trusts,
Collateral Costs: Incarceration's Effect on Economic Mobility
(Washington, DC: The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010).

125
and contrary to human rights law
: V. Sithambaram,
The Current Form of Sentencing Is Outdated: Time for Reform
(Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian Bar, 2005),
www.malaysianbar.org.my/criminal_law/the_current_form_of_sentencing_is_outdated_time_for_reform_by_v._sithambaram.html
.

125
flogs perhaps 16,000 people a year
: Amnesty International, “Malaysia: A Blow to Humanity: Torture by Judicial Caning in Malaysia,” 2010,
www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA28/013/2010/en
.

125
canes more than 6,000 a year
: “Singapore,” US Department of State, March 11, 2008,
www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100537.htm
.

125
rate one-fourth of Singapore's
: Walmsley,
World Prison Population List
.

127
The scars would never heal
: Robert Symes and Bob Hart, “Inside Story: In the Malaysian Prison System, Punishment Rarely Fits the Crime,” from
Penthouse
(UK?), c. 1991,
www.corpun.com/myjur1.htm
. I was unable to locate this article.
Penthouse
has different publishers and editions in the United States, Australia, and the UK. My inquiries to two of the three houses (United States and Australia) failed to turn up the source. Further research is needed.

128
There's a lot of pain
: “Michael Fay Interview on Larry King,”
Larry King Live
, June 29, 1994, cited at World Corporal Punishment Research,
www.corpun.com/sgju9406.htm#4344
.

129
two-to-one support for his punishment
: Cyndi Banks,
Punishment in America: A Reference Handbook
(Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005), 139.

130
asked in a few days to explain this system
: “Spanking by Electricity: Kansas Has Invented a Method Which Colorado May Adopt,”
New York Times
, February 14, 1898.

132
widespread use of such devices
: Amnesty International, “USA: List of Deaths Following Use of Stun Weapons in US Law Enforcement: June 2001 to 31 August 2008,” 2008,
www.amnestyusa.org/uploads/ListOfDeaths.pdf
. For an up-to-date list of Taser deaths, see Electronic Village,
http://electronicvillage.blogspot.com/2009/05/taser-related-deaths-in-united-states.html
.

140
cost taxpayers £37 million (about $59 million)
: Steve Doughty, “£37Million: Huge Bill to the Taxpayer for Crimes of Just Two Families,”
The Daily Mail,
July 22, 2010, 17,
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1296682/37MILLION-Huge-taxpayer-crimes-just-TWO-families.html
.

142
should be used to help real victims
: John Schmitt, Kris Warner, and Sarika Gupta, “The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration” (Washington, DC: Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2010).

147
amputation, public stoning, or sharia law
: Though it may not help a defense of flogging, I should point out that Singaporeand Malaysian-style flogging is often much more severe than is generally practiced by Islamic extremists. The canings that occur under the guise of sharia law are typically administered
while maintaining a bent elbow, very much limiting the potential force. This stroke is more slapping than whipping. The purpose of these canings, often performed on clothed skin, is usually more about public shame than breaking the skin and causing pain.