Punishment !

David Hicks is back in Australia and enjoying the relative comforts of South Australia's Yalata prison. He will spend twenty-three hours of each day in a solitary cell and have one hour to exercise in a private prison yard.
Immediate comforts are use of a radio, but it is expected that a TV will follow shortly and he will be allowed the daily newspapers as he earns privileges by good behavior - and he has just nine months sentence to serve before becoming a free man.
This raises the question of punishment and the changes that have occurred over many decades. Hicks is lucky that this country discontinued the death penalty. Had it still been in force he could have faced the hangman's noose - and he would have been buried in an unmarked grave somewhere within the prison walls.
Such treatment would be considered a modern improvement on the old British punishment for the most serious of crimes. Such offenders were sentenced to " be hung, drawn and quartered ". The dead body was dismembered and the four portions carried to each of the extremities of the country before being buried in unmarked graves - although it is difficult to understand just what that barbaric ritual achieved by way of retribution !
These days most murderers expect to walk free during the remainder of their lifetime. A sentence of "life " rarely means until life is extinguished by natural causes - and refers to a yet to be determined period of time before release.
Hicks may consider he had it tough at Gitmo - but his future is looking bright and he should thank his lucky stars that he managed to be born - and offend - in a more benevolent century !