Some people argue that the history of corrections shows an evolutionary progress toward more humane treatment of criminals. Do you agree or disagree...

I would have
agreed with this statement perhaps 30 years ago, but I no longer believe that it is true.  At
least, it is clearly not true that corrections are constantly moving toward treating prisoners
more humanely. 

For part of our history, this statement would have been
true.  American corrections were originally not very humane at all.  We started with
corrections that were...