Some folk are not convinced that moral and humanist answers alone are enough to win the argument against capital punishment. Rather, they avariciously claim that money is far more important than a human life; keeping murderers and paedophiles, for example, behind bars is apparently costing the taxpayer far too much, when instead they could be executed and be rid of. Alongside this viewpoint, the use of capital punishment is said to also be an effective means to free up space in our ever growingly crowded prisons.
The following is to factually demonstrate how the above arguments are ignorant to the truth of capital punishment; a particular focus will be on the death penalty system within the United States of America.
Firstly, it does seem that many people have the common opinion that it is a waste of taxpayer's money to keep criminals, who have committed horrendous crimes, locked up for a life sentence. More to the point, why should they have to pay to keep such prisoners alive, especially when there is no hope of rehabilitation?
The short answer is that the use of capital punishment is not as cost-effective as first thought:
It can be said, therefore, that it is an uneconomical decision to enforce capital punishment. Such excessive expenses spent on this system leads to tremendous opportunity costs - surely the education system deserves far more attention, rather than being so fervent to murdering prisoners.
Even if the above claim is true, another viable argument is surely that the death penalty frees up space in overflowing prisons?
This claim also has no strength to it. A total of ‘46’[2] inmates were executed with use of the death penalty in 2010 in the USA; this is compared to the number of current American prisoners, a total of ‘1,404,053’[3]. As a percentage, this is only 0.003% of the prison population. Only executing 0.003% of inmates is not going to free up prison space.
It is understandable that, on the surface, by executing criminals it could prevent the huge costs attributed to an ever-expanding prison population that countries like the USA suffer from. But this could not be further from the truth.
These conclusions show, in the above cases, that capital punishment, when only looking at the facts of space and money, is a system that costs astronomical amounts and does not free up any room in overcrowded prisons. It is, according to the above data, more economical to keep prisoners under life imprisonment.
[1]http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/FactSheet.pdf
[2]http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/glance/tables/exetab.cfm
[3]http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/Prison_Count_2010.pdf
The following is to factually demonstrate how the above arguments are ignorant to the truth of capital punishment; a particular focus will be on the death penalty system within the United States of America.
Firstly, it does seem that many people have the common opinion that it is a waste of taxpayer's money to keep criminals, who have committed horrendous crimes, locked up for a life sentence. More to the point, why should they have to pay to keep such prisoners alive, especially when there is no hope of rehabilitation?
The short answer is that the use of capital punishment is not as cost-effective as first thought:
- ‘Enforcing the death penalty costs Florida $51 million a year above what it would cost to punish all first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole.
- In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years.
- The California death penalty system costs taxpayers $114 million per year beyond the costs of keeping convicts locked up for life.’[1]
It can be said, therefore, that it is an uneconomical decision to enforce capital punishment. Such excessive expenses spent on this system leads to tremendous opportunity costs - surely the education system deserves far more attention, rather than being so fervent to murdering prisoners.
Even if the above claim is true, another viable argument is surely that the death penalty frees up space in overflowing prisons?
This claim also has no strength to it. A total of ‘46’[2] inmates were executed with use of the death penalty in 2010 in the USA; this is compared to the number of current American prisoners, a total of ‘1,404,053’[3]. As a percentage, this is only 0.003% of the prison population. Only executing 0.003% of inmates is not going to free up prison space.
It is understandable that, on the surface, by executing criminals it could prevent the huge costs attributed to an ever-expanding prison population that countries like the USA suffer from. But this could not be further from the truth.
These conclusions show, in the above cases, that capital punishment, when only looking at the facts of space and money, is a system that costs astronomical amounts and does not free up any room in overcrowded prisons. It is, according to the above data, more economical to keep prisoners under life imprisonment.
[1]http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/FactSheet.pdf
[2]http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/glance/tables/exetab.cfm
[3]http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/Prison_Count_2010.pdf
