A U.S. sociologist thinks criminals who commit minor crimes should be given a choice when they face the music. They can choose prison time for their offences, or they can risk the lash. He suggests flogging should return as a criminal punishment.

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Part Two of The Current

Flogging Debate - Panel

We started this segment with the sound of punishment in Malaysia. The setting is a dusty courtyard. A prisoner is naked, strapped to a wooden scaffold, arms tied above his head. He is face down and can't see the man standing behind him holding a metre- long rattan -- or whip. The man standing wears a crisp white shirt and pressed pants, with a single white glove on his working hand. A row of officials look on as the heavyset man brings the whip down on the naked buttocks of the prisoner. His flesh opens up.

The audio of this flogging has been edited to exclude the most graphic parts...
It may sound barbaric, but according to our next guest, flogging is a less brutal punishment than prison. Peter Moskos says it's time to seriously consider flogging as an alternative to jail for people who commit non-violent crimes. He's a former Baltimore City police officer and now assistant professor of Law, Police Science, and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. His new book is called In Defense of Flogging. Peter Moskos was in New York City.

And Kerry Bowman teaches at the University of Toronto. He has a PhD in Bioethics, a fellowship in Cultural Psychiatry and a Masters degree in Social Work. He was in Toronto.

Related Links:

• Imprisonment and the Lash By Peter Moskos - The Wall Street Journal
• Is flogging less cruel than jail time? By Brian Bethune - Macleans
• Saudi Arabia - End Secrecy, End Suffering - Amnesty International report on Judicial corporal punishments
  

Other segments from today's show:

• State of the Economy
• Baby Sleep