Flogging Michael Fay

© Port Whitman Times 1998 With all the furor drummed up by the press about the Michael Fay affair – should he or shouldn’t he be flogged in Singapore – apparently engineered mostly by his mother, who seems to have spoiled him to the point where he committed the acts for which was beaten – it seems only logical that someone ought to look into the positive side of this punishment. The chastisement does seem to have its merits in Singapore, to wit the lack of crime, even minor crime, if reports are to be believed, and would justify investigation as a solution by crime-ridden countries (I can think of at least one) that are being bankrupted, morally and financially, by a penal system which provides nothing more than an extended vacation for its inmates. For example, the cost of maintaining one prisoner in our American-plan luxury prisons is somewhere around $35,000 per year, which covers recreation facilities, cable TV, weightlifting rooms, basketball, etc. But the sentence passed is really a fine levied against the taxpayers. And what do we get for our money? More crime, as the prisons become training grounds for parolees who go out after serving a fraction of their sentences, with more knowledge about committing felonies, plus more connections to other felons, and the hapless public can only wonder where it will end. It ought to end in prison, where, as a condition of sentencing, if an inmate can’t acquire a moderate education and a usable skill, he/she remains until such time as he/she does. On the other hand, a good flogging costs next to nothing, and with the proper application, even public display (ads could be sold for the TV viewing, to home security companies, gun dealers, etc.), leaves a permanent enough impression to have a TRULY deterrent effect. Oh sure, I know liberals are going to say it harks back to days of slavery, that it’s inhumane, that it’s proven that beating is ineffective and all that, but let’s face it, our present system is a flop at rehabilitating criminals, and corporal punishment is at least cheaper. There’s no reason we must have penal mini-municipalities housing thousands of offenders for whom we must provide adequate bed and board plus walls, guards, administration and recreation, when a good whipping would do just as well. So until our prisons become effective at breaking the cycle of crime, training inmates for some other constructive life on the outside, I say flog them and send them hopping gingerly on their way. Henry Francisco