Death Penalty In Prisons

The death penalty is supposed to deter murder and bring the justice that the murder families of the victims should be rewarded (Hyden). Although many scientific researches can conclude that it does not deter murder and the members of the murder victims’ family have rejected/rejecting the program because it retraumatizes them with long process of trials, appeals, and of course the media (Hyden). In contrast, a sentence of life in prison is certain and instant, allowing the families to move on knowing that the justice of the crime is being served. Comparing whether or not the death penalty should be legalized, the reasons as to why it shouldn’t be, are strong enough to change one person’s mind. The death penalty still should be illegal in the United States.

The people of California spoke their minds when they decided to keep the death penalty but they also decided to speed up the process by reducing the amount of appeals a convicted inmate is allowed to have. The death penalty pertains to criminals who commit crimes such as; during a kidnapping the victim dies, train wrecking if anyone dies, if a life prisoner assaults someone and that victim dies within a year, treason, first- degree murder under specific conditions (for hire, of a witness to prevent testimony, if committed during a robbery or burglary, of a peace officer, if committed during the course of a rape by force, if committed during performance of lewd and lascivious acts upon children, or by persons previously convicted of murder). The death penalty is not for petty crimes or mild offenses, but it is for those criminals who have done something so horrendously wrong that the community has deemed it fair that they are given the ultimate punishment for their actions. Putting another person to death is a heavy decision but once decided it should be done right away. There should not be years and years of waiting and appeals by the defendant when they have already been found guilty. This is a waste of time and money. They have already been convicted of their

According to Di Editorial Board, “the death penalty is both an ineffective deterrent to violent crime and is incredibly cost-inefficient. Our funds would be better put to use in other areas, such as education, mental health, and law enforcement — all of which have been proven to deter violent crime”(2012). We have learn that punishment did not prevent crime in California as a result of the War on Drug and harsh punishment have lead criminal justice system in crisis. California prisons are overcrowded and now political what to modify the system to reduce sentences for nonviolent offender. Dan Levine and David Ingram claim, “… a modification of the Justice Department's charging policies so that certain low-level, nonviolent drug offenders who have no ties to

Since 1978 the state of California has successfully executed 13 people on death row. For decades capital punishment still remains the answer to violent and heinous crimes of the convicted. The death penalty delays closure for the families and majority are often flawed and overturned. Capital punishment causes problems within itself, those such as the cost to keep the public policy running. It is committed by an individual or insisted upon by the government, killing is still cruel in any form that it is given. Even though it is a

Many states don’t allow the death penalty anymore and I believe it’s because they think its inhumane and a morally wrong thing to do. I don’t believe all criminals should be sentenced to death, just criminals who will spend the rest of their lives in prison. There is just no reason to pay for a criminal to live their entire lives in jail, for committing a horrible crime, just because it is a morally wrong thing to sentence a person to death. Criminals who murder have already committed an inhumane crime by murdering innocent people. We are doing the humane thing by removing them from our society, because they will and cannot do anything positive for our society anymore.

It is a fearful thought to inmates being put on the death row, after serving many years to life in prison, trying to better themselves as a whole, that they will be executed for a crime they’ve committed decades before. Furthermore, isn’t prison more than enough for the inmates to endure. I guess all those years of suffering was for nothing. These inmates, instead of using them for work around the prison; giving them something to do, are put on death row; a list containing the names of inmates patiently waiting to be executed.

The difference is a lot, you don’t have a good window or a TV. And in US you have your toilet in the same room. The US prison cell look much like an animal cage.

The Death Penalty has aided or the U.S. in times where large crimes have been committed and the perpetrator has been convicted for their crimes. When the prisoner is taken into prison, they take up more space in another prison where it already is overcrowded. Secondly, Tax money that is taken away from law abiding citizens is given to prisons to care for them. Thirdly, for some of the most gruesome, cold-blooded, killers the death penalty is the only reasonable punishment for him/her to face. Therefore the Death Penalty has helped many people in many ways. Yes, there are some naysayers that disagree with this argument that would like to share their opinion. Surely this can help them understand that the death penalty helps more than it hurts.

The death penalty is ineffective because it is an awfully expensive part of the criminal justice system which spends on average, about fifteen years to sentence and execute a criminal (Dieter). In a recent study, Richard C. Dieter states that “about 275 inmates have been on death row for 24 years or more” and “only about 15% of those who have been sentenced to death have been executed.” The time being spent on death row for these individuals may be jeopardized if some inmates were to be proven innocent. In fact, in California, to confine one inmate to death, row would be nearly $90,000 per year more than a maximum-security prison for the inmate (Dieter). With the current population of over 700 criminals on death row, the costs would sum up to

States that have the death penalty want to incite fear in criminals by sentencing that person to death, so that will scare other criminals, and future criminals to stop committing crimes. According to an article by Jeffery young that crimes is still up, and never going down; that means no matter what the crime is people still committing crimes, and the crime rates is not decreasing, but is increasing and crime is still happening at this point. States that have the death penalty want to say that executing criminals will keep the community safe, but Aaron Taylor states in an article that the community is not safe when criminal is still being set free;

“Over 500,000 murderers, convicted and undetected, are living in America today” (Death Penalty 55). Keeping the death penalty upheld and established in all states would greatly decrease that number. Something must be done to keep citizens safe and to keep the murder rates low. Capital Punishment is a rightly justified penalty because it is moral retribution, constitutional, and it deters crime.

The death penalty deters criminals, even more so than life imprisonment. A common question asked by many professionals today is “Do death penalty executions deter criminals?” This is usually followed by asking if it deters better than a life imprisonment term. The process of punishing these criminals for their crimes will make other would-be felony committers think twice about doing it. A way to better stop these crimes would be to make states automatically execute death row inmates after they have been imprisoned for at least a year and no new evidence has been found in their case. Using harsher executions methods such as hangings, firing squads, or electric chairs would increase the deterrent effect even further. My reason for dealing with this issue is because I believe that the effectiveness of the death penalty is an important issue that must be addressed. I can not personally attest to the effectiveness because I have had no interaction with the death penalty, but I still believe in its effectiveness.

“Since 1977 nearly 1,100 convicted prisoners have been put to death in the 38 states where the death penalty remains legal” (Ballaro and Cushman). That is 1,100 lives who have been taken away. The death penalty should be abolished because it serves no justice, can very easily take away an innocent person’s life, and fails to deter crimes.

In California, capital punishment is a debatable issue. 1960s, the “NAACP and LDF considered that many African Americans were profound for capital punishments. It was improper since California is known as diverse and a democratic state. Many believed that it was unlawful and inefficient. As of 1960s, many innocent were involved in capital punishment; and all of them were given housing, counseling, and even their basic needs. In other words, penalizing people of lifetime prison is more cost-effective.

The use of capital punishment greatly deters citizens from committing crimes such as murder. Many people's greatest fear is death: therefore if they know that death is a possible consequence for their actions, they are less likely to perform such actions. Ernest van den Hang, a professor at Fordham University, wrote about the issue of deterrence or in other words the fear of consequences. He stated that “...capital punishment is likely to deter more than other punishments because people fear death more than anything else. They fear most death deliberately inflicted by law and scheduled by the courts….Hence, the threat of the death penalty may deter some murderers who otherwise might not have been deterred. And surely the death penalty is the only penalty that could deter prisoners already serving a life sentence and tempted to kill a guard, or offenders about to be arrested and facing a life sentence.” (Death Penalty Curricula for High School) Van Den Hang