You may have misunderstood me. I wasn't talking about ideal prisons. I said that, in order to be more vindictive than prison (meaning, the prison system as it e

You may have misunderstood me. I wasn't talking about ideal prisons. I said that, in order to be more vindictive than prison (meaning, the prison system as it exists in the US today), corporal punishment would have to be pretty awful. In other words, our current system uses prison as a means of punishment and vengeance. I'm not saying that's a good thing; I'm just saying that corporal punishment has a very low bar to clear before we can say it's more humane than the awful status quo. (Yes, rape-free prisons would also be an improvement, and probably a more realistically achievable improvement, though I disagree with the methods you suggest.)