What Is The Cost Of Death Vs. Life In Prison

“Enjoy life today, yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come,” said an unknown author. The death penalty faces many pros and cons as to why it should be legal and illegal. Capital punishment is another name for the death penalty. So many people are clueless as to what the death penalty even is or what it does. The death penalty is the punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime. Crimes to be punished by death differs from every state and country. Usually the death penalty comes to action when the capital crime is murder or rape; capital offense usually means bail will not be an option. Even though the death penalty gives closure to the victim’s families who have suffered so much, the death penalty

The death penalty has been a subject of controversy for many decades. Many people argue between it being more or less humane than a life sentence. Some say it’s not right to kill someone for killing someone else. Others believe it’s not right to keep someone in jail with no hope of leaving, especially in unhealthy, unsafe conditions. In my opinion, I am all for the death penalty; it’s better to die than live in prison for the rest of your life. The reasons why is that it is cheaper, better for the prisoner, and if someone argues the 8th amendment

First, the death penalty has its ups and downs because they could kill again if the criminal is released or if he or she escapes prison. There have been cases where the criminal serves his/her time in prison, then gets released and then kills again. They usually do this for two reasons: committing crime is all they are accustom to or they never learned their lesson while behind bars. There have also been times where people have escaped prison and the only way they know they’ll get away is by killing anyone that gets in their way. Majority of the public believes that if the criminal gets out and kills again, it’s the justice systems fault because it’s their job to keep us safe.

In many cases the person in question is sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole. Do you know how much that costs you? The current annual cost for keeping an inmate in a state prison is $47,102, times the thousands of inmates also in prison for life is roughly around 59million a year. For a person to be put on to death row is around $7.2 million for three years. For a year of life in prison compared to three years of death row is a huge difference. Which means it could cut down the amount

A. Cost The death penalty is a more expensive than the alternative life without the possibility of parole option in monetary terms, time, and resources spent. It is acknowledged that there is no national figure for the exact cost of the death penalty but many states and researchers do have estimates. All of which concluding that the death penalty is the more expensive than life without parole. This option is gradually becoming more expensive with each passing years due to factors that will be discussed from an article from The Marshall Project. The death penalty is more than the physical execution of the accused, it includes money and time dedicated to having inmates on death row. Death row does automatically imply heightened security and extra expenses. Maurice Chammah in his article “Six Reasons the Death Penalty is Becoming More Expensive” states that, “Felons sentenced to life in prison may eventually be placed in the general population, but death row inmates are virtually always housed in administrative segregation, or solitary confinement…” which can mean double or more the cost than of housing general population inmates (Chammah, 2015). The time inmates can spend on death row varies from months to years with the longest being close to 40 years. People do not realize that majority of the death penalty’s cost is not a part of any budget. Instead, they are buried in thicket of legal proceedings and hours spent by judges, clerks, prosecutors, experts and law enforcement

     The death penalty is absolutely outrageous. There is no real reason that the government should feel that it has the right to execute people. Capital punishment is murder just as much as the people being executed murdered. The is no need for the death penalty and it needs to

There were many studies that were done in May 2012 that show in some states there was a significant cost up to $232 million per year for someone to remain on death row. Someone not on death row, only a life sentence, costs an average of $11.5 million per year. The largest cost is associated before the trial begins and during the trial. Even if all appeals were banned and extinguished, the death penalty would still cost a whole lot more than any of the other alternative sentences. If a prosecutor seeks the death sentence, they have to go through two phases of conviction – conviction phase first, then a sentencing phase. And then each trial usually has some special motions and then has to allow for extra time for the jury selection process. More costs are involved with the investigative side when the prosecution is seeking the death penalty. When there is any other verdict other than death, then there are usually a lot more costs involved for a retrial, and in turn, the sentence usually ends up as life in prison.

In 2003, a study found that death penalty cases cost 70% more than cases seeking life without parole. The average case seeking the death penalty costs 1.26 million, while the average cases not seeking the death penalty costs 740,000 dollars. For instance, in California, a state that uses the death penalty, it costs about 137 million dollars a year. If they did not use the death penalty, it would cost about 11.5 million dollars a year. The average cost of keeping a criminal in jail each year is anywhere from $30,000 to $168,000, depending when and where they are imprisoned. Many people also believe that using or not the death penalty will act as a deterrence, however 88% of criminologists do not believe that the death penalty has a big impact on preventing crime. 87% say that abolishing the death penalty would also have no big impact on crime and homicide.

The death penalty should still be in use to lower the amount of money that the government spends on prisons and their inmates. According to Garmon & John in their

The future of the death penalty lies unclear in the cross-country battle over whether or not it should be abolished. The death penalty should in fact be abolished because of the extreme costs and painful time involved to house and execute inmates, the indecision of which method of execution is the most humane, and the increasing number of innocent inmates being wrongfully executed.

Those that feel that the death penalty is justified, -Incapacitation of the criminal, execution permanently removes the worst criminals from society. -Cost, it cost 30- 35,000 a year or less than a million dollars for a typical life sentence. This figure does not include for appeals and the increasing cost of health care as the inmate ages. A death roe average time is 16 years costing 3-4 million.

Life or Death As all of us know that the death penalty is not a good thing, but it is a great way of reform and preventing something happening more than once. All of the US states should not abolish the death penalty.

Lifetime imprisonment and the death penalty are both punishments used for serious criminals who can be considered “a threat to society”. Life imprisonment can come with the option of possibility of parole throughout serving their sentencing or a life sentence without parole. The life sentence is a commonly used punishment

Since the foundation of our nation the Death Penalty has been a way to punish prisoners that have committed heinous crimes, however since the turn of the 20th century the practice of Capital Punishment has been questioned on its usage in America and the world as a whole. The Death Penalty is used in America to punish criminals who have committed murders, or taken the life of an innocent person, and while the death penalty seems like it is doing justice to those who have killed others it is actually being used improperly in most situations, while also hindering our economy and is a means of ending more lives than necessary. The Death Penalty can be a valid source of punishment for criminals in the US however due to the misuse of this power by the government it is a huge detriment to our nation and the people that inhabit it. Because of the fact that Capital Punishment is used unfairly, and ineffectively in our nation it is an obsolete form of punishment and should have no place in the United States justice department.

The Death Penalty Debate The issue of the death penalty is widely disputed. So disputed that maybe I shouldn’t have picked this topic. But nevertheless, the death penalty is an issue that needs to be addressed. Should the death penalty be abolished from our criminal justice system? Well, that depends on whom you ask. If you ask me… no. I personally don’t see anything wrong with the death penalty because there are a lot of criminals that are just too dangerous to society and death is the only punishment they deserve.