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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 2002)
HE fiATTALlon Thursday witho| " a ’ a L ma jonrafe North Korea's one country ca[ concessions fro B mst nation it notions, an ad al said. White I ‘ re ^Id the Oiijest d upon learning o| i’s acknowledge ia| s that it was pm dear weapons pro. lelegation had cot. th Korea withevji 'ed over the last so. s including recent that Pyongyangtui g to enrich tit veapons. Dry ) ■ ■ Opinion The Battalion Page 7 • Friday, October 18, 2002 Prisoners demanding more Convicted criminals in no position to complain about food served 0: MARK WOOD n an episode of the \BC News jrogram ■20/20,” John itossel did a report in his weekly segment. Give me a break,” about pris- mers complaining that a new [ad in punishment in the irison systems is a violation >fthe Eighth Amendment of lieU.S. Constitution. For those who may not remember or know, the Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel unusual punishment for iolators of the law. The punishment prisoners [reclaiming to be cruel and inusual is called "the loaf.” According to the report by ilossel, the loaf is bread with , carrots and potatoes dded in for nutrition, so it's a 1 meal. Prisoners who misbehave re given this loaf of bread to a! for days or even weeks in lace of their regular prison aeals. Prisoners say this is macceptable punishment and )uld be stopped. Several lawsuits have been :d because of the loaf, ennifer Wynn, of the ’directional Association and mthor of Inside Rikers, agrees iththe suits, according to tossel. In the interview she aid. “When you come across (mates who are living on ireadand water in solitary onfinement, you know it’s mible.” Prison guards say the loaf soneof the best things to | ia PP e n as a form of punish- M. Several of the guards nterviewed by Stossel say the oaf is necessary because even fthe prisoner’s punishment |or bad behavior is solitary confinement, they still act out. Prisoners have been known to throw feces and urine at the officers as the officers give them their meals or simply go to check on them. Wynn countered in the interview by saying the pris oners who throw their feces are mentally ill and should get counseling. No counseling in the world is going to get these prisoners to stop throwing their feces. One could bring in the best psychologist from the most prestigious hospital and they could not help. She couldn’t because they are not mentally ill, they are angry and it seems as though the loaf is doing a pretty good job at stopping this rage. The loaf could quite possibly be the best invention to control prison behavior and it is absurd to call this cruel and unusual punishment. Prison officials attribute the loaf to a noticeable decline in misbehavior. Courtney Bennett, a New York correc tions officer, told Stossel in his report: “The way to a man’s heart is his stomach. That’s the saying. If it isn’t any good, they'll straighten up to get a regular meal." According to Stossel, pris oners allege the loaf is cruel and inhumane and is causing MAIL CALL “pain and suffering,” and they want millions of dollars in damages. Bennett went on to say in the interview, “You walk off the gallery and all of a sudden you're dripping with urine and feces and they're talking about the loaf as inhumane. Walking off the gallery with feces on you is inhumane.” The loaf could quite possi bly be the best invention to control prison behavior and it is absurd to call this cruel and unusual punishment. All too often prisoners forget where they are and why and how they got there. These people have proven they cannot func tion in society and therefore are punished for it. The key word is punished. They are not in prison to have a good time and dine on the finest foods. They are there to serve time, think about what they did and hopefully learn from their mis takes and change their ways. By giving the misbe having prisoners the loaf, there is no violation of civil rights being com mitted. The loaf pro vides all the neces sary elements to survive and that is all they should expect. They should, in fact, be thankful for it. laugh at the notion of the loaf being con sidered Cruel and unusual punishment. You want cruel and unusual punishment, then don’t feed the prisoners at all for a couple of weeks, or feed them three grains of rice a day. Those examples are illogical, of course, and that is just it, there is nothing illogi cal about giving a prisoner something that will satisfy all his needs and keep him healthy. The loaf may not taste like mom’s homemade bread but when Stossel tried some fresh out of the oven, he had no complaints. “I was surprised. It tastes fine —just like bread,” said Stossel. Prison systems should recognize the loaf as an effective form of punishment and should keep pumping loaves out of the oven. Leigh RichaDson • THE BATTALION Local police should bother criminals, not A&M students ln response to George Deutsch's Oct. 16 column: had to agree with the assertions made by ■ Deutsch. It’s appalling to think that the People put on campus to protect us are only ^gto catch us "in the act". It's difficult for to take seriously the many times a college Indent is pulled over for a minor traffic vio- 3 'on, when there are more heinous things furring on campus and in College Station. wEagle published a series of letters a few , e .| 5 a go which got quite a response from olle ge Station citizens. Many others feel the S3 me way. as students, are not criminals. The rea- nwe are treated as such is because of the 0ne y involved. How much money does Xas . make on parking tickets? They've r ainly collected their $35 from me. How mak m ° ney ^ oes t ^ ie cit V c °ll e g e Station cam etlcke tmg the people just about to leave .:j. a fter their classes? I would bet it is a 'd'culous amount. a J_ Uc L ents ar e not going to take the time j rom class to fight a ticket when defen- SI ’ T e d ™ing is a lot cheaper, life k • ars ! 1 re ality is that we are type-cast. Wro rm ^ ‘ n money. We tend to be in the Writ/ P ace . at fhe wrong time. It's easy to com | US 3 for not being in "perfect a . . Iance with the law". We're like mice in * n factory, susceptible to predators. Virginia Traweek Class of 2005 tave b DeUtSch fina "y sa id what many Aggies are trpT^j corn Pl a i n mg about for years. We 11^^ 3 as a nuisance in the B-CS com- thicki 3nd its time we took a stand against The c t nt Crimination. 3 hind 1 ^ ^ ^ 0 *l e 8 e Station acts like we are in f act rance to fTmir citizens way of life, when '^irliv'Tk are t * 1e ma ' n source °f most of that t b 6 l - 10od ' For example, it is ridiculous that sav ^ counc il can pass an ordinance cars Da k ^° U may not f 1ave more than two Mono t 6 l n ^ ront °f your house that don't Doyo, 0 /- P eo Ple that live there, given a > ' nk a non 'Student resident is ever MaHi Clta f' on when they have friends over nrie r party? Of cour<;p nnt. Not only are these ordinances passed specifically to attack college students way of life, but they are never enforced consistently across the city. City council-persons, police officers, and even fire marshals need to check their power trips at the door and reassess the true pur pose of their positions. Instead of continuing this bigotry, maybe they should concentrate on making this a safer and friendlier environment for all of its citizens. Brandon Crisp Class of 2003 Too many students admitted In response to Mariano Castillo's Oct. 16 column: There is no question of whether Vision 2020 and its initiative to increase diversity needs to be considered. However it is only one step in the right direction. The reason Texas A&M dropped in the U.S. News rankings is not because of the admission of minorities that were not qualified but the admission of far too many students altogether, whether they be black, white, blue or green. Rather than questioning the race and qual ifications of those admitted, the administra tion as well as student leaders should ques tion the number of students admitted. The University of Texas was featured in last year's rankings because they are the largest school in the country and they are taking the neces sary steps to decrease their student-faculty ratio. It's no surprise that the schools consistent ly ranking in the top bracket have a low stu dent-faculty ratio. And for those skeptical of class size at yours truly, try counting how many of your classes were offered in lecture auditoriums. I remember having to drop FINC 201 during the first week of classes because the class was so large students were sitting on the floor. The consensus among educators is that small class size is the optimal learning envi ronment. Somehow you would think at a uni versity with a School of Education A&M would get the picture, but until they do, our ranking will remain dismal. Chris Carter Class of 2001 Corporal punishment is too extreme for children Man uses 100,000-volt stun gun on stepson JENELLE WILSON B razoria County offi cials arrested a man last month after he used a 100,000-volt stun gun to discipline his 8-year-old stepson and 11 -year-old stepdaughter. Theodore E. Moody was charged with two counts of injury to a child and his wife was arrested for not reporting the abuse, according to the Houston Chronicle. The state Child Protective Services (CPS) removed the four children from the couple's home for a year. Moody is an extreme, yet appropriate example of the problem corporal punishment causes in soci ety. Parents do not and should not have the right to discipline their child in any way they please. Even discipline which does not cause physical damage is harmful. Much of the damage corporal punish ment does to children is psychological. There is a fine line between punishment and abuse, which Moody certainly crossed. However, hitting a child in any manner is a violent act, and parents should refrain from disciplining their chil dren in such a way. Moody used the stun gun to discipline the boy for oversleeping and missing the school bus. He told his stepson to walk to school and walked behind him, zapping his buttocks every time the boy slowed his pace. A sheriff s captain in Brazoria County told the Houston Chronicle the shock from a stun gun feels like a bee sting - to an adult - and is followed by a temporary paralysis. The most disturbing aspect of this case is that Moody considered a stun gun a perfectly legal and appropriate way to discipline his stepson. “I've whipped his ass so hard that it left marks,” Moody told the Houston Chronicle. “That just didn’t send the message and this did." He decided to use the stun gun after asking a CPS official how to handle his stepson and was simply told “don’t break bones, don’t draw blood.” According to a recent study published by the American Psychological Association, the single desirable outcome associated with corporal punish ment was the immediate end to misbehaving on the part of the child. The study found 10 strong negative associations with corporal punishment, however, including increased child aggression and antisocial behavior. Psychologist H. Stephen Glenn opposes corpo ral punishment because it leads to an increase in bad behavior in children. “It reinforces resistance, revenge and resentment,” he said. As the behavior increases, so does the violence. The more a child is hit the more likely he is to be aggressive or have mental health problems. The bad results associated with corporal punishment far outweigh the good. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) offers guidelines on how to effectively discipline children. Parents should use positive reinforcement of good behavior and negative punishment for bad behavior. Negative punishment means when a child is misbehaving, parents should use time-outs or take away certain privileges because children respond better to nonviolent discipline. Parents can lose control while punishing chil dren. Madelyne Toogood, the mother caught on tape hitting and shaking her 4-year-old, is a highly publicized example of a parent losing control. According to the AAP, 44 percent of parents sur veyed in 1996 said they use corporal punishment on their children and half reported being angry at the time. Of these, approximately 85 percent said they felt moderate to high anger, agitation and remorse while punishing. When a parent loses control, a child can be severely hurt or killed. The Institute for the Prevention of Child Abuse reports that 85 percent of child abuse cases result from over-discipline through the use of corporal punishment. Corporal punishment is not worth the risks posed to children. There are better, more effective means of teaching and disciplining them. Not all parents who use physical discipline cross over into legally defined child abuse, but they are still com mitting violent acts against a child which may psy chologically damage them. Jenelle Wilson is a junior political science major.
