Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 9, 1994 TAG: 9405110069
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID NOVA
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Caning has gained much notoriety in recent weeks due to the well-publicized story of an American teen-ager arrested in Singapore for spray-painting two cars and throwing eggs at other vehicles. The Singapore court sentenced him to six strokes of the cane - later reduced to four - and four months in jail for vandalism.
Judging from recent comments in the media, few Americans seem to understand that six - or even four - strokes cannot be compared with slaps on the wrist with a ruler or taking a child over someone's knee. If Americans in Dayton and elsewhere are interested in incorporating this punishment into our judicial system's repertoire, they need to fully understand what it is they're asking for.
In Singapore, caning is mandatory for some 30 crimes, including attempted murder, armed robbery, rape, drug-trafficking and vandalism. It is an optional penalty for a number of other crimes, including extortion, kidnapping and causing grievous hurt.
The cane, or rattan, is 4 to 5 feet long and a half-inch wide. A Singapore prison official notes that with a well-trained caner: ``the skin across the whole backside will split 99 percent of the time.'' In 1974, the director of prisons, Quek Shi Lei, described how ``the skin at the point of contact is usually split open and after three strokes the buttocks will be covered with blood.'' Subsequent strokes with the wet cane slice away pieces of skin.
To protect against organ damage, thick pads are fitted around the prisoner's kidneys and groin. A mouth gag is used to keep the tongue from being bitten. A doctor is present to ensure that the prisoner stays fully conscious during the caning. If the prisoner faints, the doctor revives him and confirms that the prisoner's life is not threatened. If the prisoner cannot be revived, the caning is stopped until he is certified as medically fit for caning to be resumed. Twenty-four strokes is the maximum permitted by law.
Caning in Singapore is a public spectacle routinely performed by professional caners on hundreds of prisoners each year. It is designed to unleash the maximum amount of pain and suffering without killing the inmate in the process. The trauma that results leaves long-lasting physical and psychological scars. According to a Singapore businessman who received 12 strokes in 1967 for trying to escape from a reform center, ``I had to go without shorts for more than two weeks so that my wounds could heal. I couldn't sit or sleep on my back or bathe all this time. ... The pain burns in your mind long after it is over. Until now I have nightmares about it.''
There are 16 countries that currently use flogging (with a whip, rod or cat-o-nine tails) or caning for offenses ranging from the consumption of alcohol to murder. These countries include Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, South Africa and Iran. Five of these countries also use the amputation of hands and feet as a form of punishment.
In many of these countries, women are not exempt. In 1992, Maha Sa'ad-ul-Din Banat, a 35-year-old mother of four, was given 200 lashes in four installments during a one-month period after being convicted of adultery. Her alleged lover received 100 lashes.
A prisoner in Malaysia described the pain inflicted by caning as akin to the pain he imagined would result from branding with a red-hot iron. He also spoke of the medical complications often suffered during imprisonment. ``In the tropics, open wounds can become breeding grounds for all kinds of bacteria very quickly. The cane had left furrows that were weals of bloody pulp. The scars would never heal.''
If reading these descriptions makes readers wince, this commentary will have achieved the desired results. The United States should never consider these barbaric acts as tools of crime prevention. They do far more to brutalize society than to deter crime.
Even advocates for this form of torture freely admit that enormous numbers of prisoners must suffer before there can be any appreciable effects on crime. Others argue that such human rights abuses foster an atmosphere of violence and do more to destabilize governments than to end crime.
Though it is unlikely that the United States would adopt Singapore's solution to spray-painting cars, it is not inconceivable. The United States has an ugly and extensive history of using the whip to mete out punishment. As recently as the late '80s, the Delaware state legislature considered several proposals to make drug trafficking punishable by public flogging.
Second, corporal punishment is akin to capital punishment. The United States leads the world in executions with the largest death-row population of any nation, including China. Execution, whether by electrocution or lethal injection, is arguably far more violent than caning or flogging.
Finally, Americans are fed up with violent crime in America. Our society seems willing to adopt any strategy that might reduce the crime rate and allow families to feel safe walking in their own neighborhoods. Caning is not the answer. It would merely be violence begotten from other violence.
David Nova of Roanoke is former deputy director of Amnesty International in Washington, D.C.
by CNB