Should States Use Humiliation as a Punishment?

(From the Associated Press.) If you haven't heard already, as of yesterday a new law took effect in my home state of Tennessee that will require convicted drunk drivers "to do 24 hours of roadside cleanup while wearing orange vests emblazoned with the phrase, 'I am a Drunk Driver.' "

Jeanne Mejeur, a research manager at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver, said Tennessee's law "is pretty much a unique program nationally."

The whole thing seems very Hawthorne-ish (and a little childish).

I would hope that the General Assembly would not pass such an unconventional law without having the psychological research to back it up; but I'm not sure that they do. Rep. Charles Curtiss, one of the law's sponsors says:

"You cause them to go out and pick up trash in front of their friends and neighbors, the embarrassment is going to be such that they're never going to want to go through that again. Hopefully you can turn them around to never become a second-time offender."

I would hope that jail time would also have that effect, but it doesn't always.

Governor Bredesen opted not to sign the bill; the measure also has been opposed by the Tennessee chapter of MADD and the Tennessee Sheriff's Association. Critics argue that the program will be very expensive. (The law stipulates that the offenders' roadside work must not interfere with their work schedules; thus most of the clean up will take place on weekends, requiring supervising officers to work overtime.)