Quote:
Originally posted by KABillyMac
I wish I knew in dollars how much it costs to sustain one person in a federal or state maximum security prison.
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According to a study (done by, admittedly, a pro-death penalty organization) in 1996, the average cost for the lifetime of a prisoner living from age 25 to age 75 (male) is around $2 million.
(Note - I'll try to find a cite later, too much stuff to do for now)
Now . . . that said, the death penalty still doesn't make a whole lot of financial sense in its current form - with court costs etc, the price of keeping them alive is about the same (possibly cheaper - again i'll look for cites). Add to that the fact that the death penalty is not an adequate crime-prevention technique, and also, of course, the possibility of the system being wrong - killing the wrong people etc . . .
Now - THAT said, I'm firmly pro-death penalty. I figure we should just cut the bullshit, don't pretend like you're doing people a favor either way. The issue is punishment, not deterring crime or whatever, and personally I'd prefer to eliminate these people from our society, although I understand perfectly well the issues and hypocrisy associated with this viewpoint. If you're convicted by a jury of your peers of a crime that society deems worthy of capital punishment - that's it, that's all I need. Of course, the current system needs a total overhaul, but that's a different issue entirely.
God is the ultimate judge, sure - but if you want to make this argument extensible to the next level, that eliminates all sorts of elements of the criminal justice system. We're not judging a person's soul - just his or her guilt in a worldly, temporal issue.
Hybrid Mode
