[Guillermo]

I'm not to sure.

I would think this is what the Founders were thinking of when they banned "cruel and unusual" punishment.

I support the 8th.

Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

[marktuoni]

I guess somewhere between being thrown off a cliff in a sack and being given cable television, a weight room and three square meals a day is probably where the founders were in their thinking.

I personally don't think either extreme is any more aggregious than the other. I just tend to lean more toward your definition of cruel and unusual, I suppose.

"Cruel and unusual" is and was during the writing of the amendment likely intentionally vague.