meaning in context - What is “non-guideline sentence” to allow the accused to serve as a diplomat instead of a prison term?

I read New York Times article (May 13) titled "ex-Senator gets 21-month prison term in tax evasion case." It says in abridgment:

The former Republican senator, Vincent L. Leibell III had faced 18 to 24 months in prison, based on sentencing guidelines.

His lawyer, David L. Lewis asked the judge to take into account Mr. Leibell’s "life of public service" and urged him to consider a "non-guideline" sentence allowing Mr. Leibell to do community service by letting him serve as a diplomat to the Middle East instead of a prison term.

"We don’t have public stocks anymore, where he can stand with his head and arms in stocks," Mr. Lewis said, trying to convince the judge that Mr. Leibell’s crime would be forgotten in jail, but that doing some sort of "social restitution" would be more humiliating for Mr. Leibell and would offer a broader, more public lesson.

More than being puzzled with the logic that servicing as a diplomat can replace prison term, and to serve as a diplomat to Middle East is a humiliating work, I am interested in knowing what the word, "non-guideline sentence" to make it possible, and the phrase, "we don’t have public stocks anymore, where he can stand with his head and arms in stocks" mean. Can anybody tell me?

Answer

Before the US was wealthy enough to pay for public buildings to house criminals (i.e. jails), minor criminals were put into "stocks". These were wooden contraptions that held the criminal's ankles. They were left in the open where people could ridicule them or perhaps entertain themselves one way or another.

A similar punishment was the "pillory". Googling this is easier as "stock" has many meanings in English. The pillory held the prisoner's head and hands, as well as ankles, and was a more dangerous punishment. The public would throw rotten food, dead animals, etc., at the prisoner and some were killed. On the other hand, if the public thought the prisoner was unfairly punished they might protect him or her. The inability of predicting the punishment contributed to the reduction in their use.

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

nouns - what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter? Thanks!

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.

Notes

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