Here is some interesting reading for our members. Certainly there are some lessons to be learned from these true accounts of CP in the US.

An excerpt...

THE PADDLE. An innocuous schoolroom term given it by the director. The Paddle. Two strips of quarter-inch
polished leather, two feet long, over two inches wide, separated by a sixteenth-inch piece of taut, pliant sheet metal.
Attached to a four-inch round hand grip, the leather was perforated on either side midway down, with one-eighth-
inch holes, ending in a half-inch long taper. The effect brought the whipping weapon down in a cracking slap that
drove through the thinness of the cotton shorts, into the upper tissues of the skin. Halfway through the beating, the
holes were filled with blood-covered flesh.

The boys were led into a dank. whitewashed corridor six feet wide, eight feet high. The aged walls were lit only by a
single wire-encased bulb glaring against the musty ceiling.

Three quarters of the way down the corridor were two identical rooms, one on either side, both lit with bulbs
encased in the rusty wire mesh. The boys were directed to the one on the left-the Colored Boys room it was called-
equal and identical, separate by law. Word had it the only difference was in the number of strokes given blacks.

The room held nothing but a rusting, GI-green army cot, with an uncovered, striped mattress and pillow, dark with
the liquid stains of human misery. The two runaways were uncuffed and ordered to sit on the cot. The two
Statesmen stood over them, silent, watching as the terror began to tremble their bodies. A third state man stood
waiting in the corridor. The director began to question them:

Why did you boys run? Dont you know you cant get away from here? You boys are lucky; farmers hereabouts
shoot runaways. Either that or the swamps get them. Whats your excuse? if youve got one, I want to hear it.

Woody began to cry softly, the directors voice signaling the inevitable emotional buildup to the beating.

Mike crying too, tried to speak: I dont know I could take anymore I just wanted to get away I

Dennis said nothing; the director slowly tapped his game right foot. Finally, Mike gave up, his head bowed.

All right, the director said.

Which of you will go first?

Neither answered. The director pointed to Mike.


http://www.thewhitehouseboysonline.com/LONG-ROAD-WHITEHOUSE.html

Neither answered. The director pointed to Mike.

You then, lets go---into the other room. And giving a nod to Dennis, the director led Mike in the White Boys room.

Pointing to the army cot, the director gave the instructions:

All right now, son, itll go easier on you if you do as I tell you. Youre to lay down on the cot on your belly; turn your
face to the wall. If I were you, Id stuff the corner of that pillow in your mouth. Once we begin, dont turn your head.
Dont cry out or scream if you do, we start all over again. Place both hands on the cot frame and keep hold of it. Do
not try to get up or try to stop us. If you do, well send for some kitchen boys to hold you down. Id try to stay as
relaxed as you can; youre less likely to be hurt.

The mask of sternness began to slip. Something---remorse perhaps---began to flow down the long lines of his face.

Now get this straight in your head. Every boy is told about running away. You knew the punishment; youve seen
boys brought back to your cottage from here. You knew what to expect when you were caught. So you asked for
this.

The new mask melted into place: two hundred years old; seen from a thousand Protestant pulpits; from a multitude
of Southern court benches at sentencing time; before the cringing figure of a mischievous child; at the hanging of a
good slave gone bad; before the daughter being sent away from the unacceptable lover.
The patriarch stood towering before Mike. A long pause followed as he turned the show of his flawed right leg on
the cement floor. Then he spoke the formula: Let me tell you something son, this is going to hurt me more than it
will you.

Have said his piece, the director pulled himself erect, the tone of self-pitying condescension gone from his face.

All right now, lay on down there, turn your head and get a hold of the cot.

The boy, visibly shaken, did as he was told.

The director spoke again:

You best do as I said and stick the corner of that pillow in your mouth.

Bob T, I've read the whole article in the link you posted. It is absolutely harrowing, and it nearly made me cry - and that takes some doing! If any of the men who did that are still capable of being indicted and imprisoned then they should be. I make no secret of the fact that I support school corporal punishment under some circumstances. That wasn't corporal punishment though, it was inhuman brutality applied to some of the most helpless and friendless young members of society who had the misfortune to find themselves sent to that school.

It wasn't a school though, despite it's name, was it? It might have been called The Florida School for Boys, but in reality it was a penal institution. That's the reason those disgusting events happened. The men who did that weren't schoolmasters, whatever their title might have been, they were prison wardens, and pretty unregulated prison wardens at that.

The problem there, and the problem in many of the penal institutions in the US, is that for some reason, and surprisingly in one of the greatest and most civilised nations on earth, anyone sent to any sort of detention facility is regarded as effectively sub-human. Depending on the regime in that particular facility they can be treated in almost any way their keepers see fit. Kept locked in isolation without natural light in sensory deprivation conditions, shackled and chained whenever they are out of their cells in vast super-max prisons or brutally flogged in an institution for young boys, it all stems from the same mentality. These people have done something wrong, therefore they forfeit all human rights.

Guantanamo Bay or some unfortunate minor offender being paraded before the cameras in handcuffs and leg-irons on the way to a court appearance before they've even been found guilty, it comes down to the same attitude on the part of many people in the US. And it's that attitude what led to Marianna's White House.

Another_Lurker: The problem there, and the problem in many of the penal institutions in the US, is that for some reason, and surprisingly in one of the greatest and most civilised nations on earth, anyone sent to any sort of detention facility is regarded as effectively sub-human.

Some will dispute this statement. There are civilised Americans, off course.

Hello KK. Yes, I don't totally disagree with you. In fact if I'm honest I don't disagree at all. But there is no disputing that America is a great nation, and there is no disputing that by at least some standards they are civilised. Their penal system is a disgrace and certainly isn't civilised, but that's what I was in effect saying. Their public medical services and social support systems aren't much better.

Rightly or wrongly though, I've got to have some regard for America at present, because if they don't pull the world out of the financial chaos we're in the muppets masquerading as politicians in Europe certainly aren't going to.

TWPs POSITION ON JUDICIAL C.P.

The position of TWP on the issue of Judicial C.P. must be understood as solely the opinion of the contributors of this blog -Nothing more or less. We intended to do a write-up earlier as a response to a commentary from a reader about Disciplinary Diversions that he experienced in his youth years ago. Our opinion as to present day U.S. Judicial C.P. is a resounding NO.

We are sure the typical reader of our blog is wondering Why? First, check our link and several posts on Ingraham v. Wright (1977) for background. If you read the decision, it will be apparent that the U.S. Supreme Court OUTLAWED Judicial C.P. because the 8TH and 14TH Admendments to the U.S. Constitution applies to the criminal justice system -NOT SCHOOLS. The court made this distinction by noting the differences. A convicted criminal is incarcerated and does not go home at night. But children do and the court decided 5 to 4 that constitutional safeguards were neither needed or mandated for school children as to corporal punishment. In otherwords, the parents and schools were left to sort out how such policies would be implemented.

But in youth camps and other programs the issue is tricker and there is some grey areas. TWP errs on the side of caution and says NO because of the incarceration aspect of these boot camps and the potential for abuse. After all, the parents of boot camp kids may be unaware of abuse because they may not even see their kids for weeks at a time. An example of this was in a story a week ago in which the state of Florida opened an investigation into some serious abuse allegations that go back over 50 years. The investigation centers around a facility called the White House which was a reform school.

We believe that any use of c.p. outside the school and home is on shaky legal ground and must NOT be an option as to U.S. Juvenile law. As far as Malaysia or Singapore, their laws are their business so when in foreign countries -Obey their laws!

As to the U.S.A., schoolkids in some states and children in the home in every state are legally subject to reasonable and non-abusive c.p. The U.S. is not Singapore but is not likely to ever become Sweden either. What the U.S. does become will be determined by WE THE PEOPLE! And that is the way it should be!

A_L

Good job Barack had Gordon Brown to show him what to do, then!

Steve M

Hi Steve. I am tempted to ask what Gordon Brown showed the US President that he didn't know already, but I'll be charitable and assume you're joking!

I came upon this article/story completely by accident. I was doing a Google search and when I saw the photo of the prison strap I clicked on it. It took me to that story.

I am still astounded by the fact that this was not front page news all around the country. But it is par for the course. States that still allow SCP don't want people to see what "en loco parentis" leads to. If more people were aware of these abuses, "we the people" would do away with SCP.

With any luck this story will get picked up by the national media as it goes through the legal system. I suppose it will depend on how slow the news day is when it goes to court.

The web site I linked to in my OP asks that any former inmates contact them asap. I assume they want to hear as many accounts as possible so they can be presented as evidence in an upcoming trial.

They closed the place in 1969 so I doubt anyone will be prosecuted. Maybe the victems will get some money from the state.

The whole thing confirms one thing. Power corrupts!
Or as Cardinal fang said "money is the root of all evil"
Ah ha thats two things!
( appologies to Monty Python )

Hi Mimi. As you say, power corrupts! But I think in this case the full saying was perhaps of significance:

All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely!

The people running that institution had absolute power over the children committed to it, and they became absolutely corrupted.

But I do wish that Bob T wouldn't link what happened there to School Corporal Punishment, as in:

States that still allow SCP don't want people to see what "en loco parentis" leads to. If more people were aware of these abuses, "we the people" would do away with SCP.

The people who committed those disgusting barbarities were not 'in loco parentis', they were not school teachers, they were prison wardens. It was not a school. It may have had the word 'school' in its name, but it was a penal institution, to which the inmates were committed by courts. Prison wardens are not 'in loco parentis', they are there on behalf of the State to ensure that inmates do not escape and are subject to whatever punishment the courts have imposed on them. In this case the State failed to properly regulate the activities of those prison wardens, they had absolute power, and the inevitable happened. But it was NOT school corporal punishment!

The analagy of the resulting principle is never the less the same in deed nes pas?
In other words people who are given power by the people ultimatley abuse that power against the people.
Which is unfortunately why we can never let teachers use physical abuse towards young people again.
Before anyone (ykh says CP is not abuse, it is.

Here is a link to the stories of some of the boys who were inmates at the school.

http://www.whitehouseboys.com/   it includes a video of some of the men who blew the whistle and got the Governor to start the investigation.