Switch (corporal punishment)
Flexible rod used for corporal punishment
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A switch is a thin, flexible twig from a tree or shrub used as an implement in corporal punishment. The application of a switch is called switching.
Material
Switches are typically made of strong and flexible wood such as hazel, birch, or hickory.[citation needed] Willow branches are also used, as well as branches from strong trees and large shrubs. Switches are often from a garden or an orchard nearby, or taken from the wild. In the Southeastern United States, fresh-cut, flexible cane (Arundinaria) is commonly used.[citation needed]
Corporal punishment
Both historically and in the contemporary era, switching is a form of punishment used by parents.[1][2]
Historically, it was used as punishment against slaves in the United States and was one method of corporal punishment in some armies.[3]: 65–66
The tamarind switch (in Creole English tambran switch) is a judicial birch-like instrument for corporal punishment made from three tamarind rods, braided and oiled, used long after independence in the Commonwealth Caribbean island states of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.[4][failed verification] The Jamaican legal case Osbourne v Jamaica contested, on the grounds of human rights, the legality of the tamarind switch being used as a form of judicial corporal punishment.[5][non-primary source needed] Within Jamaica, the last person to receive the tamarind switch was Errol Pryce in 1997 (sentenced to prison in 1994 for the crime of stabbing his mother-in-law) upon release from prison.[6] The use of the tamarind switch was effectively ended as a possibility for judicial punishment within Jamaica in 2004, though was only formally removed from statute law in 2013.[6][7] The abolishment of the tamarind switch was met with praise from international human rights groups and opposition by some of Jamaica's population.[6]