Shorter Peter Moskos: "Assume that the current function of prisons-as-torture-chambers arose totally by accident, and flogging suddenly sounds more humane." So

Shorter Peter Moskos: "Assume that the current function of prisons-as-torture-chambers arose totally by accident, and flogging suddenly sounds more humane." Sorry, d00d, but our prison system didn't "fail" - it was deliberately sabotaged and bent from a system that tried rehabilitation to a system intended solely for retribution and exploitation of convict labor. Handwaving this away without identifying the forces responsible is sloppy journalism.