The Death Penalty Versus Prison - 1202 Words

When conducting an informal research regarding the death penalty versus life in prison, many people responded with the â€Å"Give ‘em the death penalty and save us the tax payers money† and â€Å"I bet they will think twice before taking a life†. The statement regarding saving taxpayers’ money can be no more farther from the truth. The average death row inmate in Alabama may wait to be executed for an average of 14 years, as reported by the Alabama Department of Corrections. The judicial system does have articles for violent and non-violent offenders. When discussing life in prison without possibility of parole versus the Death Penalty, my argument focuses on violent offenders. Violent offenders in Alabama is an offender who has been convicted of a†¦show more content†¦The cost for one inmate on death row is considerably higher than two inmates sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. One must consider, when a person is on dea th row, besides the countless years spent there, he or she has infinite access to attorney representation. Based on the information obtained through personal research, I maintain taxpayer money would be well spent and could be allocated to more important areas, if the judicial system sentenced fewer individuals to capital punishment or abolished the process altogether. Taxpayers are not saving money by placing convicts on death row. The amount of dollars spent to house death row inmates and the attorney fees can mount to the excess of hundreds of thousands of dollars at the date of the execution. In addition, Capital punishment has been disproportionately directed at the lower socioeconomic segment of the population. Though contained in character geographically, capital punishment is a forceful feature, a kind of staple meaning, â€Å"we are tough on crime† ideology, to those who commit heinous crimes. As the state of Alabama continues to cut funding to state parks, road construction, and the state legislature argues against teacher pay, there seems to be a majority in favor of continuing to spend valuable taxpayer money on capital punishment. As pointed out earlier, the average death row inmate stays on death row for approximately 14 years. Give the example; Anthony Ray Hinton was on