I Don't Like My Prison Cell - this is Inhumane!

[Webb]

Some people believe that no government has the right to kill anyone.

[machineman9]

258 square feet of space?!

My university room has 120 square feet of room. I guess that's what

[expat]

- It's insanely expensive. Life with no possibility of parole is much cheaper.

Yes it is, I read am article about that very point last week, Each death row convict costs from conviction to execution around $300 million where as life is in the hundreds of thousands. During the election last week, California has this very point on the ballot form, and end to capital punishment on the cost grounds.......

Matt

[jetprop]

- It's insanely expensive. Life with no possibility of parole is much cheaper.

Yes it is, I read am article about that very point last week, Each death row convict costs from conviction to execution around $300 million where as life is in the hundreds of thousands. During the election last week, California has this very point on the ballot form, and end to capital punishment on the cost grounds.......

Matt

Wait,what the hell is that 300 million used for?Obama's payroll?

[machineman9]

Wait,what the hell is that 300 million used for?Obama's payroll?

I thought the prisons were privately owned? Either way, Obama (or any president, as it has been the case for a while) won't see that money.

Basically, in order to put someone to death, they must have the best chance of living. That means the best lawyers (several of them), a team of experts, specialists (including psychologists, investigators, etc). The whole shebang.

Those specialists are paid for by the government out of public spending. It's so that people who can't afford the best lawyers during their trial will have the chance to have the best for free to protect them when they're defending their life.

It would be too dark-aged just to send them to death with no defence, so they pay for their best defence.

[jetprop]

Wait,what the hell is that 300 million used for?Obama's payroll?

I thought the prisons were privately owned? Either way, Obama (or any president, as it has been the case for a while) won't see that money.

Basically, in order to put someone to death, they must have the best chance of living. That means the best lawyers (several of them), a team of experts, specialists (including psychologists, investigators, etc). The whole shebang.

Those specialists are paid for by the government out of public spending. It's so that people who can't afford the best lawyers during their trial will have the chance to have the best for free to protect them when they're defending their life.

It would be too dark-aged just to send them to death with no defence, so they pay for their best defence.

True,but still,300 million?
And I'm not sure about the private prison thing...

[machineman9]

True,but still,300 million?
And I'm not sure about the private prison thing...

Between 150 and 260 privately owned correctional facilities in the USA. Naturally, there has been some criticism.

And yeah, I'm not quite sure where the 300M value has come from. The Guardian did a bit on it though: Capital Punishment Cost to the USA

It certainly isn't cheap, but it's not 300M expensive. Unless they're just tallying up all of the death row'ers?

[C]

It's always frustrating - but as history has proven the death penalty, although "effective" in some cases, has not been in others, and, more importantly, is irreversible should it be then proven wrong. At least some people do the decent thing (Fred West, Harold Shipman etc), and relieve the burden on society to support them, and others are given a very hard time (Huntley, slashed throat etc).

What really frustrates me is that prisoners get a better deal in some cases than those serving their country, who sleep rough when abroad, or two, three or four to a room when inmates often no longer even share, and have all the amenities they need either in their cells or close by. Hilariously the armed forces telephone allowance when abroad was also increased to move inline with those being kept in jail! The other thing that really gets me is why we continuously build new facilities to replace "unsuitable" jails. So what, make them live in cold, dank, unpleasant places.