Hear That Sound? It's Feces Hitting the Fan.

[kandrathe]

Edit: I was thinking on this further and I discovered I usually lump deterrence, restoration, and retribution into one thing called justice. I don't think there is can be deterrence in our system other than the proper application of justice. To do more would violate human rights and diminish the very system which laws and justice seek to maintain. Retribution, (or the application of just punishment) and restoration (just compensation) to the victims for their loss is the heart of Justice and social rightousness. So beyond justice, I see incapacitation, and rehabilitation as the other two parts of the system. I'm becoming less inclined to support incarceration alone as proper punishment.

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Note that "Cruel and Unusual" has no actual bearing on any of the basic rationales for a penal system; the clause against "cruel and unusual" punishment in the constitution is not a propery of the philisophical rationales for punishment (that is to say, as though there were no crime heinous enough to warrent a cruel punishment). "Cruel and Unusual" punishment exists as an extention of the belief that there are inallientable rights that come with being subject to the state.
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If the prick of a needle is too severe, what is left?

Would cruel and unusual include something like...

Having the prisoner in a straight jacket, with all six sides of the solitary cell containing unreachable large screen televisions playing the same few "My Little Pony" cartoon reruns, and a noose hanging and chair just ready and waiting in the corner.

I almost threw myself out of the boat during the 15 minute "It's a small world" ride I got roped into taking at Disneyland. Imagine that 24x7 for weeks... No one, sane or not, could take that.