"Montana lawmaker offers pain instead of prison"

A helpful reader altered me to this notable local story of a notable state sentencing proposal that, I suspect, ought to generate some interesting discussions.  The story has the same headline as this post, and here are excerpts:

A Montana lawmaker says convicts should be allowed to get out of prison time if they instead agree to the "infliction of physical pain" — an idea that so far is receiving a cool reception.

Republican Rep. Jerry O'Neil is drafting a bill that would allow those convicted of misdemeanors or felonies to negotiate corporal punishment instead of another sentence. The method used to inflict the pain would be decided by a judge.

The veteran lawmaker said Wednesday that he thinks long prison sentences are inhumane. "Ten years in prison or you could take 20 lashes, perhaps two lashes a year?  What would you choose?" O'Neil said.

He argued that the convict under his proposal could remain employed to pay restitution, and that it would potentially save the corrections budget millions of dollars per year. "It is actually more moral than we do now," O'Neil said of the lashings. "I think it's immoral to put someone in prison for a long time, to take them away from their family, and force that family to go on welfare."...

The House speaker's office noted that O'Neil bill was tied up in lengthy legal review and faces several hurdles. "It's a citizen legislature, and folks get to carry the bills they like on their own," said House Speaker Mark Blasdel, a restaurant owner from Somers.

House Minority Leader Chuck Hunter of Helena was speechless over a bill he said looks like it comes out of the 17th century. "Wow," Hunter said.

The Montana ACLU, opposed to physical pain and corporal punishment, sympathized with the effort to reduce prison populations.  "We agree with Rep. O'Neil that our state needs to find alternatives to over-incarceration and lengthy jail and prison sentences that are ineffective and costly, but we don't agree that corporal punishment is the solution," said Niki Zupanic, the group's public policy director.

"We support reducing sentences and increasing our investment in community corrections alternatives.  We need to put more and better options on the table, but corporal punishment is not one of them."  

Not only do I share Rep. Jerry O'Neil's viewpoint that long prison sentences are inhumane, I am eager to applaud his apparent eagerness to develop a creative alternative to imprisonment that would give defendants and judges more discretionary punishment options.  Indeed, if a bill were merely to allow defendants to propose corporal punishment options in lieu of any prison time, and especially if the severity to the corporal punishment is to be circumscribed and only availble upon the defendant's knowing request, I do not this provocative sentencing proposal should be dismissed out of hand immediately. 

After all, even short prison terms include, both formally and informally, the imposition of some significant measure of physical discomfort: one need not have seen the TV series Oz to realize prison food, lodging and companionship lacks many of the comforts of home.  Moreover, for persons who suffer from any number of medical conditions (both physical and mental), prison stays can involve persistent and sometimes extreme physical pain (and can sometimes become de facto death sentences).   And, personally, I would consider the emotional pain of being separated from my children for a decade or more to be far harder to imagine or endure than even a serious whipping (and, of course, my kids would really hate not having me around to drive them places).  

Of course, as with all creative sentencing proposals, the devil is in the details.  But, for now, I am eager to reserve judgment on Rep. O'Neil's bill until I see just how he tries to operationalize a potential corporal punishment alternative to long prison sentences.  More generally, I hope that those folks eager to support and help the interests of criminal defendants are not too quick to dismiss completely any creative efforts to develop any potentially more humane punishment option than long imprisonment to our modern sentencing toolbox.