We all know that our prison population is growing out of control, yet nothing is being done. Well leave it to a Republican to come up with a most awesome alternative to incarceration – spankings:

A Montana Republican state lawmaker wants to give criminals the option of choosing “corporal punishment in lieu of incarceration.” According to Think Progress, the legislation is being proposed by Rep. Jerry O’Neil and would apply not just to misdemeanor crimes, but to some felonies as well.

The law states that “(f)or purposes of this section, ‘corporal punishment’ means the infliction of physical pain on a defendant to carry out the sentence negotiated between the judge and the defendant.” The law states that the exact nature of that pain shall be “commensurate with the severity, nature, and degree of the harm caused by the offender.”

The proposed law stipulates that the punishment shall be carried out by local sheriffs if the defendant is avoiding jail time or corrections personnel if the defendant is choosing the option to stay out of state prison.

What could possible go wrong here? Well, save the deviants who actually enjoy pain and will break the law just to get their tushys whipped.