# Flogging or Prison? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 20, 2011, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flogging-or-prison/586192 "2011-06-20T19:43:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flogging-or-prison/586192/1 "2011-06-20T19:43:24Z")
You’ve been convicted of a felony and sentenced to a prison term (for simplicity’s sake assume no parole, early release, or time-served considerations). However, you have been offered the option to substitute a flogging – 6 lashes – for prison. The flogging would be “professionally” administered and medically supervised, but nonetheless [quite brutal](http://www.twogreens.co.uk/wakeup/images/flogged.jpg) and potentially dangerous (beyond the expected wounds, that is). If you opt for jail, you will serve your term in a maximum-security prison. How long would your sentence have to be, then, before you would prefer to take the 6 lashes instead? ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flogging-or-prison/586192/2 "2011-06-20T19:45:55Z")
Somebody [beat](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=612855) you to it. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flogging-or-prison/586192/3 "2011-06-20T19:49:52Z")
. . . as is inevitably the case when you don’t do a check. Nuts. Mods, please close the thread? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flogging-or-prison/586192/4 "2011-06-20T20:08:58Z")
Is done.