[ExI] word of the day

[William Flynn Wallace]

SR, you are producing some really good posts.  I have learned a lot from
them.  Thanks!  bill w

On Fri, Jul 3, 2020 at 11:34 PM SR Ballard via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> I think we are confusing the religious sense of penance with the secular
> usage.
>
> The penitentiary was originally religious in nature, aimed at reforming
> the soul and turning the sinner back to God.
>
> The American penitentiary was originally the Quaker conception, with all
> other places being either prisons, or jails.
>
> We go not have penitentiaries in the religious sense. We have jails and
> prisons. People are not sent to jail/prison in an attempt to cause them so
> much physical and emotional distress (mortification) that they are purged
> of their sins.
>
> Jails and prisons are their own punishment. They are not aimed at
> rehabilitation of the individual within society, nor are they aimed at
> setting him right with God via mortification of the flesh. Solitary
> confinement is not used to cut a man off from all evil influences so he
> will turn to God, but instead to punish a prisoner and break him mentally.
>
> A Jail/Prison is not a place of penance. People do not willingly enter
> into this place to expiate their sins, nor is there any conscious effort on
> the part of the State or the staff to effect such a change.
>
> I sincerely doubt that a jail/prison encourages people to regret their
> crimes. What counciling is provided to inmates in that regard? Instead they
> are exposed to a blatant disregard for human life, privacy, and dignity.
> They are stripped of their agency and abused at every opportunity. They are
> treated like human trash, regardless of their crimes. What Jail/Prison does
> is cause people to regret getting caught, teaches them to lie more
> effectively, and encourages them to learn and master new ways of committing
> crime and violence which are normalized and rewarded by their environment.
>
> If Jails/Prisons we truly penitentiaries, we should expect to see men go
> in as broken sinners of the highest degree, and exit devout men, purged of
> the need to do evil. Alas, even the Quakers found that they just drove
> everyone insane due to the solitary confinement.
> SR Ballard
>
> On Jul 3, 2020, at 6:51 PM, Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>
> Quoting Bill W:
>
> Penitentiary - in effect if not in intention, the most misnamed thing of
>
> all time.
>
>
> bill w
>
>
> How so? In what sense is a penitentiary not a place of penance? Do you
> doubt that inmates of penitentiaries have cause to regret their crimes? Do
> you not believe incarceration is a punishment? Or is that the inmates are
> not actually absolved of their crimes by doing their time? Since penance
> and penitentiaries were originally Roman Catholic religious concepts
> involving sin, penance, and absolution. Which as SR Ballard points out also
> made its way into Quaker culture.
>
> Stuart LaForge
>
>
>
>
>
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