Incarceration of these criminals is inadequate because it fails to distinguish between different kinds of crime and because it conceals punishments. Banishment would help break the bond between the indigent and the criminal, obviate the need for the death penalty, reduce the State's financial responsibility to the criminal, allow prisons to become less a place for punishment than for rehabilitation, and reduce violence. It would also reduce physical and sexual abuse, permit spouses to accompany the criminals, force the criminal justice system to make qualitative decisions about crime and punishment, and fit the punishment with the crime -- forcing one who cannot live within the law to live without the law's protection. There is no American precedent for banishment simply because as long as there was a West, there was no need. Banishment is less cruel and unusual than prison. The Federal Government and the States have access to land suitable for banishment. People who are banished will largely care for themselves and control their own crime. They might kill or abuse one another, but they do so now in prison. Banishment is no less democratic than prison. Adoption of a program of banishment should lead to a review of current laws and penal institutions. One research note is attached.