Bring Back Flogging 2

Jacoby's Jeff "Bring Back Flogging" is an enlightening piece of literature. Even though it was an engaging essay, Jacoby lacked proof and because of that he did not persuade me that flogging would be very beneficial this time and day in our judicial system.

The point or thesis of Jacoby's writing is that corporal punishment indulged by the Puritans was the right method for chastising criminals in the late 1600s. Jacoby believes that the lawbreakers that commit a crime today, whatever it may be, committed for whatever reasons, are punished by imprisonment. Not only are the prisons overpopulated, it is also costly to keep them there. Jacoby believes this is the reason that some criminals don't even see the front door to the prisons. Jeff Jacoby describes the flaws of today's criminal system, and claims that flogging should be our alternative method because it is much quicker, cheaper, and more effective way than imprisonment.

The title is an attention –grabber, one in which Jacoby has clearly stated his thesis. The title undoubtedly states what he wants to persuade his readers.

Jacoby's second paragraph provided examples of how the Boston Puritans responded to the wrongdoers back in the 1600s. The whipping and the branding of a man for selling guns and ammunition to the Indians, the adulteress who had fifteen stripes on her naked back and her companion condemned to twenty-five whips and branded with the word "Adultery in Capital letters written upon his brest" are just a few examples that Jacoby enlightens us with, but doesn't emphasize that was the last of their criminal ways (Jacoby par. 2). It did not provide any proof that flogging frightened them in the right direction.

Jacoby goes on to tell us that corporal punishment for lawbreakers has been around for a while but has not been put in to use for more than 150 years. He uses sarcasm to clarify his opinion about how we now "practice a more enlightened, more humane way of disciplining wrongdoers: We lock them up in cages" (Jacoby par. 3). His sarcasm goes on when he attacks our judicial system by stating that imprisonment is an "all-purpose punishment" that whatever the crime, violent or nonviolent, lawbreakers are destined to end up in a cage. Jacoby acts if we don't have any other form of disciplinary. Do we not have community service? What about probation? Plenty of us have been pulled over for speeding and had to pay a fine. Is that not some form of punishment? I suppose being whipped at the common whipping post would deter potential speeders more so than having the wrongdoers give up their hard earned money. I reckon Jacoby's sarcasm is rubbing off on me. Unbeknown to Jacoby, not all lawbreakers are punished by imprisonment only, we do have alternative methods. Committing murder and selling drugs are very harsh crimes and in my opinion should result in a prison