Cut Death Penalty, Save CA $126,000,000 a Year

[Iwillnevergiveup]

By Ramona Ripston, Executive Director, ACLU - Southern California

Eye-popping numbers:

# $90,000 a year - taxpayers' extra cost of holding one inmate on death row.

# $10.9 million - taxpayers' cost of one death penalty trial, based on records of sample trials.

# $117 million a year - taxpayers' cost of seeking execution, after conviction, for inmates throughout the state.

http://www.laprogressive.com/law-and-the-justice-system/death-penalty/

[Iwillnevergiveup]

1. What a sickening industry

with a very strong prison guard union!

[sui generis]

2. god forbid cutting the death penalty because it's barbaric

and immoral.

"The state" doesn't execute anyone. There is always some individual who is responsible for taking the life of another individual at the moment of the act, and doing it "on behalf of" the injured party is still sociopathic, no matter which way you cut it. It's barbaric to punish the taking of life with the taking of life, and the people who think they are justified in doing it "on behalf of society" really aren't much better monsters than the ones they're putting down.

There is no denying it's cathartic - but that's a throwback to when we swung in trees and hung out in caves and the person with the biggest clubs and the most bullies got to play king.

I AM in favor of life without parole being used more often, and also in favor of giving anyone sentenced to life without parole the opportunity to exercise euthanasia if they so choose, but only once. :P

[SPedigrees]

8. And emptying the prisons of drug offenders

would leave room for life w/o parole for those who merit this penalty.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. Bullshit! No price is too great for the righteous pleasure of destroying those we hate!

Take money from somewhere less important, like, say, state employees' wages. But only from the poor ones, because the rich ones are Worthy.

Feh. Imagine that. Messing with the Holy and Righteous Capital Punishment. What next, getting rid of Three Strikes?

[Johonny]

9. isn't it more cost efficient to set up free inmate bounty on these people

say 4 packs of smokes if you off an inmate mark by the state with death. Think of the cost savings, and money to be made on cigarette taxes when you teach an inmate to smoke.

[KamaAina]

4. Possibly tens of millions more

as that would undercut the rationale for keeping aging San Quentin, which is located on close to a square mile of prime Marin County waterfront (seriesly!). Previous efforts to sell it off have foundered because it boasts* our only Death Row for men.

[newtothegame]

5. How is that money spent? Has anyone ever seen a breakdown?

I'd be interested to see what on death row is costing $90k per prisoner, or $10.9m in a trial (wtf?).

[Jack_DeLeon]

6. They need to figure out ways to make it more efficient...

so not so much money is wasted on taking out murderers.

They should go back to hanging that way you can recycle the rope instead. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. :)

[NoNothing]

7. For perspective

That's as much as California spends in about 2 hours.