True cost of Capital Punishment?

Question

Why do people inist that the Death Penalty casts more than Life Without Parole??? I keep hearing people spout this off, but have they really accounted for all of the numbers???

Read and tell me your thoughts:

According to Studentabolition.org states, “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 author of this article means for readers to infer that a life without parole case costs only $766,666.66.
Well, $766,666.66 / 40 equals only $19,166.67 which is way lower than the actual cost of imprisioning someone each year according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. And what about the court costs here?

The $2.3 million figure accounts for all aspects of a death penalty case though, however Studentabolition.org accounts ONLY for the cost of imprisonment of the individual who receives a sentence of life without parole. - A CLEAR manipulation of numbers.

Actually, in 2006 The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reported that operation, food service, and medical care estimated the bill for the AVERAGE inmate to be around $27,500/ year. Remember though, the AVERAGE inmate is NOT serving Life Without Parole. Those inmates are in higher security facilities thus costing much more than $27,000/year. Also what about inflation and the rise in medical care for inmates who are not accounted for (BJS reports average of 3% raise EVERY year)? What about the rising prison population with Hep.C, HIV and AIDS? The anti-death penalty argument has failed to account for the costs of additional medical care here as well. What about the cost of geriatric care which the BJS reports to average and ADDITIONAL $70,000/year for EVERY inmate over 70?

When all of these are factored in and BOTH death penalty and life without parole are held to the SAME standards, this is what the costs really look like:

Life Without Parole: $ 2,257,007.19

Death Penalty: $1,863,923.52

These figures are for life without parole with imprisonment for 40 years versus death penalty with imprisonment for 11 years.

Answer 1

You are absolutey correct on the costs. I agree with you on this 100%!! People should research this and then they can see the actual costs.

Answer 2

The death penalty costs much more than life without parole.
These sources speak for themselves.

1. Final Report of the Death Penalty Subcommittee of the Committee on Public Defense, Washington State Bar Association, December 2006,
http://www.wsba.org/lawyers/groups/committeeonpublicdefense.htm

2. New Jersey Public Policy Perspective, Mary Forsberg
http://www.njadp.org/forms/cost/MoneyforNothingNovember18.html

3. The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Office of Research's Report, "Tennessee's Death Penalty: Costs and Consequences."
http://www.comptroller.state.tn.us/orea/reports/deathpenalty.pdf

4. Kansas: Performance Audit Report: Costs Incurred for Death Penalty Cases: A K-GOAL Audit of the Department of Corrections

5. National Bureau of Economic Research, The Budgetary Repercussions of Capital Convictions, by Katherine Baicker
http://papers.nber.org/papers/w8382

6. Indiana Criminal Law Study Commission, January 10, 2002)

7. Costs of Processing Murder Cases in North Carolina,
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/northcarolina.pdf

The actual numbers vary from state to state but the bottom line is the same: The cost of the death penalty is much greater than the cost of life in prison.

Answer 3

Ironically, capital punishment cost more than life imprisonment. There's no correlation between murders with states with the death penalty and those without. Also, in America unlike the UAE, it's illegal to use strange or unusual punishment for obvious reasons. The fact you believe the police have the right to beat the crap out of people is beyond insane.

Answer 4

I'm with you, I think a life sentence should be a death sentence and put a time limit on that execution, you get, say, 10 years for appeals then it's the gallows!!! Lets make the criminals afraid of the justice system again!!!!

Answer 5

Not to mention all the people in prison that get killed by people serving a life sentence, including prison guards.

Answer 6

Almost a 400,000 savings,

they cost more money either way than most people make in their entire career sweet.

Answer 7

if they ask me they can lower that life without parole..by making the prisons alittle more (prison like)

Answer 8

Your numbers are accurate, agree with you 100%

Answer 9

I fully agree...Just did a paper on it...(small paper)...but good...It pisses me off that people say its more on death...

Answer 10

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=108#financialfacts