American Prisons: Flog 'Em Instead.

Mandy van Deven, in Salon.com interviews Peter Moskos, author of the book "In Defense of Flogging".

see Could flogging solve our prison crisis?

It is important to note her interview article title, and mine, and the title book itself are deliberate provocations to raise the bar in the American prison over-population debate.

We are not actually advocating the use of flogging, even if some think it's a great idea.

One must also consider the following facts (from the interview):

• "Since the declaration of a war on drugs 40 years ago, (The United States) has amassed the largest prison population the world has ever seen."
• "The U.S. has more prisoners than China, and they have a billion more people than we do."
• "The War on Drugs...(is)...how we went from having normal levels of incarceration to seven times the normal rate."