Corporal Punishment Effects

It’s been 2 years now I’ve been waiting behind bars to come to this court room on the date of my sentencing, your honor. And to this day, I still haven’t come to grips with what really has happened to me and what I really did. Continuously, I ask myself why and I’ve promised I will make it clear to you, the court room, society, ladies and gentlemen and myself; maybe I don’t fall into the category of “gentlemen.” And so before you read my sentence, Sir, let me say this.

Though my mother was the gentlest, the kindest to the strangers who frequented her surroundings or to the neighbours, family and friends she held close to her heart; behind closed doors, she was a little different. Behind closed doors however, there was her and there was me and there we were. So, I saw her go through the happy times and the most trying times. These times were often based on me and my behavior. I had the ability to change her mood in a flash. And I was a troubled child. Even more troubled that I am now. Yes, I would steal food from pots and steal pencils from classmates and run in the house with dirty shoes or even forget to turn off the lights. But then I’d always be sorry because my mother would always temporarily “out my lights.” And to her, what was a punishment without a slap or a severe beating with the hardest of materials? There was no love involved there; just a terrified child. But did it work? Your honor, the same mistakes I made before were made again. And again, I would receive my lashes. I don’t know how my neighbor couldn’t hear me screaming. It was the most painful experience ever. Even more painful than the beatings I received behind bars. How could the one who loved you the most inflict such unbearable pain on you and why so often? But I only see it that way now that I’m standing here.

Your honor, it never occurred to neither my mother nor me that the penalty I paid for my petty mistakes would lead me here to receive my biggest penalty of all. She probably thought it would make me a better man than I am today. And yet,