talkpolitics | Should we bring back the Lash?

Advocate corporal punishment and most people will scoff or recoil in horror. "What do you take us for? Barbarians?" seems to be the most common response. and yet, thanks to the "War on Drugs" and mandatory sentancing the US imprisons more citizens per capita than any other country in the western world. One month ago the US Supreme Court ruled that conditions in California prisons were unconstitutional, specifically that the prevalence overcrowding coupled with shoddy/non-existant medical treatment constitued cruel and unusual punishment. Furthermore the prevalence of rape in american prisons has been declared a humanitarian crisis by numerous watchdog groups.

It's a simple question really.

If given the choice between 10 years in a California prison or 10 lashes in the public square which would you choose?

Personally I'd choose the whip.

PS:
The above morally-framed argument completely ignores the economic incentive for corporal punishment, you don't have to spend ____ years feeding and housing a flogged prisoner and you do not loose a potentialy valuable member of the workforce. Though if the former is your chief concern we could just bring back chain gangs.