Not only revulsion toward corporal punishment but faith in the science, as it was called, of rehabilitation produced America s reliance on imprisonment. And shame-for example, allowing the public to view prisoners at work occasionally was an additive of incarceration. It is so today with the revival of chain gangs. Recent alternatives to imprisonment have included fines and sentencing to community service. However, both are inadequately expressive of condemnation.
Fines condemn ambivalently because they seem to put a price on behavior rather than proscribe it.
Sentences that shame not only do reputational harm and lower self-esteem, their consequences can include serious financial hardship. Today the United States has 519 people imprisoned for every 100,000 citizens. The figures for Mexico and Japan are 97 and 36, respectively. The United States needs all the prison cells it has and will need more. It would be a shame to neglect cheaper and effective alternatives.