How many say we should bring back stocks and pillories for public punishment...?

Question

...instead of putting people in jail for short sentences?

It would save money, and the amusement it would give us would at last furnish a good reason to go downtown to the Courthouse.

"Save those rotten tomatoes for Saturday, Billy!"

Answer 1

Stocks would be OK by me, but I hesitate about pillories. One reason that they were abolished in the late 18th/early 19th centuries was because they had the tendency of being an unfair form of punishment. The person in the pillory had no way of defending themselves against a hostile crowd, who often would throw objects that could cause permanent damage to the prisoner. While that sounds enticing in certain situations, that would probably be excessive punishment in modern society.

On the other hand, people sitting in stocks did have some capacity of self-defence as their arms were free. The punishment would then simply being in the uncomfortable position for days at a time.

However, if a person in a pillory could be assured of not being harmed (excessively, that is, rotten tomatoes are OK), then that would be fine by me as well.

Answer 2

i ask your self how the individuals who're so waiting to have human beings whipped in public right here felt about human beings playing at doing merely that at very last week's Folson highway straightforward in San Francisco? I stated countless outrage on conservative information superhighway sites inclusive of Michelle Malkin - now i ask your self if some individuals merely mandatory the question reframed :)

Answer 3

Excellent idea! And while we're at it, we could trot out all those 'Scarlet Letter A's'. They're just collecting dust in the attic, after all.