From: jamesd@netcom.com (James A. Donald)
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 21:01:31 PDT
To: Rachel_P._Kovner@gorgias.ilt.columbia.edu
Subject: Re: Government and Repression
In-Reply-To: <1994Aug31.164507.1182797@gorgias.ilt.tc.columbia.edu>
Message-ID: <199409010334.UAA24363@netcom14.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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I wrote:
> >In most of the world, indiscipline and bad behavior in the
> >prison will get you beaten, unofficially in Australia, officially
> >in Japan.  (Yes, *corporal punishment*, gasp, oh the horror).

Rachel_P._Kovner@gorgias.ilt.columbia.edu writes
> Umm, minor point, but just for my personal clarification, are you
> sure there's corporal punishment in Japan?  I seem to remember
> that during this whole Singapore thing, Japan was often raised
> as a model of a society with Singaporean crime rates and no
> corporal punishment.

There is no corporal punishment for crimes, but if you are
a prisoner and you misbehave, you will get wacked, just as
you will in most places.  In Japan they do not seem terribly
embarrassed about this.  I saw this on TV.  A bunch of prisoners
sitting perfectly still for a long period, and a guard with a cane
who wacked anyone who moved.  He did not wack them very hard.

It looked perfectly civilized to me, and I recommend the practice
to US prisons.

How can you maintain discipline in a prison otherwise?

Answer:  In US prisons there is no discipline.  Prisoners learn
to be aggressive, rude, and obnoxious to the guards and to each
other.  Good training to render them unemployable when they 
emerge.

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