The Puritans probably had it right. Put this young punk in the stocks every day for a week (he gets to rest in his jail cell at night). The disrespect he gets from his own community would serve as a disincentive for him and his friends in the future. Unfortunately, I’m sure our Supreme Court has already classified that as “cruel and unusual punishment” forbidden by our Constitution.
Here is an idea to replace the stocks with something that isn’t “cruel and unusual” for the modern era: Put him in a solitary jail cell with a big bullet proof floor to ceiling window to the sidewalk, so everyone can observe him doing his time. Not nearly as uncomfortable as stocks, but full of public exposure.
“The disrespect he gets from his own community would serve as a disincentive for him and his friends in the future. “
I wish that were true. If this young man had a community which valued civic responsibility and personal achievement none of this would have happened.
Put this kid in the stocks and within an hour he would be a hero with his own reality show, and whoever had put him there would be out of a job.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stocks
From Wiki:
Modern Usage in the Criminal Justice System
On August 5, 1989, the Dermott, Arkansas (U.S.A.) City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting children from breaking curfew, by providing for a sentence of 30 days in jail with 2 days in an open-air public stockade for their parents.[12] The ordinance was modified two weeks later to delete the reference to the stockade, as the term was undefined, the town did not have a stockade, and no funds were allocated to build one.[13]
Whether punishment by placement in the stocks may be allowed under the American criminal justice system, is an unanswered question. Normally, criminal punishment is through incarceration in jails and prisons, and probation which may include community service. However, alternative sentences imposed by trial courts have been upheld on appeal. For instance, in United States vs. Gementera, the defendant was convicted of mail theft and sentenced, among other measures, to stand in front of a post office for eight hours wearing a sandwich board that read: “I stole mail. This is my punishment.” On appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for the United States affirmed the sentence, finding that the sentence was not imposed solely for the purpose of humiliation, but also served the criminal justice system’s goals of deterrence and rehabilitation.[14] The Ninth Circuit further found that the alternative sentence did not violate the Eighth Amendments prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, noting that the sentence was “within the limits of civilized standards,” and noting that the sentence did not include a lengthy prison sentence, which could have been imposed.[15]
Using the Ninth Circuit’s reasoning in Gementera, it would appear that punishment in the stocks may be imposed in America in certain circumstances, particularly since the United States Supreme Court has held that the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment must be determined by reference to punishments uncommon at the time of the Bill of Rights.[16] Given the long history of usage of the stocks in Colonial times, it cannot be said that the stocks would have been considered ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ in Colonial times. Given this fact, circumstances in which the punishment may be lawfully imposed in the United States currently would certainly include sentences involving a significantly lesser time period for incarceration when measured against the time period specified in the statute (as noted by the Ninth Circuit in Gementera), and times when the offender elects the stocks in lieu of a different punishment, which would waive any error on appeal. Regardless of whether the offender agrees, however, sentencing in the stocks may be available without violating Federal law. State and local law, however, must be separately analyzed to determine whether the stocks as a punishment may be available. The mainstream media has recently directed attention towards whether using the stocks violates the United States Constitution, and concludes that such usage may be allowed under precedent which notes that public shaming punishments have been permitted in other cases.[17]
In South America, on March 19, 2012, married thirty-four-year-old Alfredo Blanco Basilio and her eighteen-year-old lover Luis Martinez were placed in stocks by the Sampues tribe in the South American nation of Colombia due to Basilio’s adultery. Basilio spent 72 hours barefoot in the stocks for her offense.[18]