Creationism evangelist Kent Hovind, who served nearly nine years in federal prison on tax-related convictions, says the U.S. prison system should be abolished in favor of biblical punishments such as restitution, corporal punishment or execution.
Hovind, who is known as “Dr. Dino” and founded Creation Science Evangelism and the former Dinosaur Adventure Land theme park in Pensacola, Florida, made the comments in a recently resurfaced Jan. 30 episode of the “Strength for Life” podcast with Pastor James C. Johnson of NorthStone Baptist Church in Pensacola.
In the interview, Hovind, 73, said prisons are not part of God’s law in the Bible and called the modern prison system costly, corrupt and ineffective.
“We shouldn’t have prisons at all. Under God’s law, you fine them, beat them or kill them,” he said. “There’s no prisons. The people in prisons in the Bible, the heathen prisons. Under God’s law, the only reason you lock somebody up is for medical reasons. You know, quarantine them for something.”
He cited Exodus 22 and other Old Testament passages.
“Under the Bible law, if you steal somebody’s sheep, you pay back four sheep. There’s no jail time. Or if you murder somebody, you get executed,” he said. “If someone rapes your daughter, you don’t want her to have to watch him in jail for 20 years, hoping, ‘oh, he’s going to get out someday.’ No, watch him get executed. Go spit on his grave.”
Hovind said such an approach would allow victims to “emotionally heal up that way” and would be “much better for society and much cheaper.”
Responding to a request Thursday for clarification on the video, a spokesperson told The Christian Post that Hovind “does not have the time to read or reply to emails.”
In November 2006, a federal jury in Pensacola convicted Hovind of 58 counts. The charges included willfully failing to collect and pay payroll taxes for employees of his ministry; structuring, which means breaking cash bank withdrawals into amounts under $10,000 to avoid federal reporting requirements; and obstructing the administration of internal revenue laws. His wife, Jo Hovind, was convicted of related structuring charges.
On Jan. 19, 2007, U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers sentenced him to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and more than $600,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. Hovind was released in July 2015 after serving nearly nine years. He has long maintained he did nothing illegal and was not a tax protester.
While incarcerated, Hovind said, he surveyed about 1,000 fellow inmates for his 2008 book, The Kennel, which uses the metaphor of a dog kennel to describe how “the U.S. prison system operates as a profit-driven business.”
“I asked a thousand guys, I said, ‘Guys, if you committed a crime, no question, you’re guilty.’ And the judge says, ‘You want five years in prison or 20 lashes? Which would you take?’ All but one of them said, ‘I take the 20 lashes,’” Hovind said.
He compared the choice to parenting.
“If your son does something wrong, you say, ‘Son, I’m going to lock you in your bedroom for five years.’ ‘Dad, give me a spank and get it over with.’ […] If a parent did not spank their kid and locked them up for 5 years, they’d go to jail. But our government locks people up for 10 years instead of giving them a spanking.”
Hovind said that under biblical law, punishment is limited, unlike long prison sentences.
“The Bible gives them never more than 40 lashes. And [it] has to happen in front of the judge. The judge has to see their punishment carried out,” he said. “Now the judge just says, ‘Ah, 5 years, 10 years. I’ll just make it 15.’ And she goes on to lunch.”
He criticized the financial incentives of the prison system.
“Well, if we didn’t have prisons, they wouldn’t need all your tax money, too. […] The love of money, root of all evil,” he said. “Judges, congressmen, lawyers, police, they can own stock in the prison system. […] The longer they lock you up, the more money they make. That’s so corrupt. It’s evil. […] And it’s modern-day slavery.”
When another podcast guest said corporal punishment could restore the value of public shame, unlike long, private incarceration, Hovind replied that nearly everyone who serves more than two years in prison loses their marriage. He argued that makes lashes better for families and cheaper for society.
“Pay somebody a hundred bucks, beat him and everybody go home,” Hovind added.
While the Law of Moses does not prescribe jail as a punishment, Old Testament accounts of figures such as Joseph and Jeremiah show that jails existed.
In Numbers 15, an accused Sabbath-breaker was held “in custody” only “because it had not been declared what should be done to him.” According to some scholars, this indicates long-term prison sentences were not common.
In the New Testament era, Roman authorities used jails alongside other punishments, including physical torture and death, which Jesus of Nazareth experienced following His condemnation under Pontius Pilate in Matthew 27.
