It is estimated that Oregon’s tax payers, approximately pay one hundred and fifty dollars a day for their up keep (Death penalty info). This includes: housing, clothing, food, health cost, counseling, and education. The estimated time an individual spends on death row is approximately twenty year, which adds up to just over a million dollars per inmate. Now, multiply that by the twenty-seven that are sitting on death row. This is costing the tax payers twenty- nine million dollars over a twenty year period (Death Penalty Information Center).
The author of the article goes on to say that people in the US are sentenced to do time for crimes that would not produce such a sentence in other countries. According to another article in the New York Times (2008), states spend close to ten percent of their budget on corrections (Liptak &, 2008). In 2007 alone, states spend close to $45 million tax dollars. Not only is simply housing an inmate costly, but healthcare also provides a financial burden. In 1998, the states paid a little over seven dollars a day per inmate for healthcare (Kinsella, 2004).
From 1861 to 1865, approximately 620,000 soldiers' lives were cut short, not to mention the 50,000 civilian lives that were also claimed. Soldiers lost during that time exceeded the combination of soldiers lost from the Revolutionary War, both World Wars, the Korean War, the Mexican War, and even the Spanish-American War. In comparison to today's population, six million people would die in four years or two percent of our population. The impact of death on the human capital grew in importance. It became familiar in fact, a part of daily life for Americans at that time.
The cost of health care that he receives for the heart transplant after leaving a hospital is about $1 million. As the guy recovered, he still had to serve 25 years to life in prison. There is a debate about whether the felons deserve organ transplantation. Most people would find it troubling that a criminal would get a major organ transplant while hundreds of law-abiding citizens who desperately need the organ, such as heart, kidney, liver, lung, and etc., are made to wait. National Kidney Foundation stated, “Over 95,000 U.S. patients are currently waiting for an organ transplant; nearly 4,000 new patients are added to the waiting list each month.” On the other hand, there is valid argument regarding convicted felons should receive organ transplants .
36 states have higher incarceration rates than Cuba, the country with the world's second highest prison rate. Looked at in terms of actual inmate numbers, this means that the number of people behind bars in most US states is on par with the prison populations of entire nations, like Venezuela and Egypt. https://news.vice.com/article/the-mass-incarceration-problem-in-america Funding of American prisons is another big problem. Since population of the prisons in our country extremely grows, the government began to spend more money on prison system. Imprisonment of America's 2.3 million prisoners, costing $24,000 per inmate per year, and $5.1 billion in new prison construction, consumes $60.3 billion in budget expenditures, and it continues to grow.
Since 2013, there has been an increase in death sentences in over 57 countries. Debates over capital punishments have existed for centuries. Each of these debates has solely focused on moral and philosophical concerns about the fate of their fellow brethren. The inability of human beings to reach a consensus over capital punishment involving moral standing has left capital punishment to exist. Nearly eighty percent of the American society praises the death penalty but only for heinous crimes.
The United States hands out longer sentences than most other countries do for similar crimes. A first time drug offense in a federal court in the United States would receive five to ten years mandatory sentence. Around the world in other countries of democracy, the same first time offense would receive at most, six months in jail. Judges in the United States are prevented from using their discretion, since these crimes carry a mandatory sentence. Another example would be that the United States gives an average burglary sentence around sixteen months, but Canada gives a sentence of five months, and in England people get about seven months.
According to him, 99% would rather be imprisoned for life than sentenced to the death penalty. Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, as cited in Haags argument says, "Some men, probably, abstain from murder because they fear that if they committed murder they would be hanged. Hundreds of thousands abstain from it because they regard it with horror. One great reason why they regard it with horror is that murderers are hanged”. In the article titled “The Folly of Capital Punishment”, Jeffrey Reinam concludes that capital punishment is immoral to our society; and thus, should not be legalized.
This shows he cares more about what is right for the people then his own personal benefits. The authors used very strong language quoted by Del. Davis throughout the paper such as, “the death penalty is flawed, ineffective and racially biased. And if we can get enough people to understand that, then in a few years we can repeal the death penalty in the United States once and for all” (Jealous & Braveboy, p. 11). Those sentences speak a lot about how powerful words can affect us.
The first person who tried to reform the death penalty was Thomas Jefferson. He said it should only be used when the person in question has committed treason or murder(Part I). People that think the death penalty should still be used usually believe that a horrendous act should have an equally horrendous punishment.People opposing the death penalty usually believe that it shouldn’t be used because all life is precious.