Criminal justice inflicts pain as punishment even as excessive suffering is constitutionally proscribed. But how far can the conventional metrics of pain go in setting the boundaries of due process and due punishment? Today, pain science is using imaging technology to take account of human suffering, and thereby lay the groundwork for the next “Path Forward” to post-conviction justice.
Physical, psychological, emotional, acute, chronic, and intermittent pain are the tormentors who cannot be bribed, bargained or reasoned with. Pain knows no rest. And without relief, it suborns the will, clouds judgment, and drains vitality. Prison encapsulates pain, leaving many inside to suffer even as they must make critical decisions.