Civilization and barbarism: punishing criminals in the twenty-first century
"The practice of mass incarceration has come under increasing criticism by criminologists and correction experts who, nevertheless, find themselves at a loss when it comes to offering credible, practical, and humane alternatives. In Civilization and Barbarism: Punishing Criminals in the Twenty-First Century author Graeme R. Newman argues this impasse has arisen from a refusal to confront the original essence of punishment, namely that it ought to include an experience of discomfort and even pain. He begins with an exposition of the traditional philosophical justifications for punishment, and then moves to the history of criminal punishment. Over time, the West abandoned the pain of short-term corporal punishment in favor of the more diffuse and longer-term discomfort inflicted by incarceration, justifying a massive bureaucratic prison complex as "scientific" and "civilized." Newman compels the reader to confront the biases embedded in this model of punishment and the impossibility of defending prisons as a civilized form of punishment. Illustrated with examples of drawn from everyday life, and their efficacy, he asks readers to reconsider moderate corporal punishment as an alternative to prison and, for the most serious offenders, forms of incapacitation without prison"--
