Following the execution of a death row inmate last night by firing squad i did some research. let me start by saying i am all for the death penalty, i just think it takes too long. 14 years on average. i believe that when you kill an innocent person(purposefully) your life is then forfeit. especially if the victim is a child. but i googled for about 2 hours trying to find this information for you. if my math is off let me know.
A. Total number of death row inmates as of October 1, 2009: 3,270
B. Average time spent on death row: 14
C. Average yearly cost to house death row inmates: $30,615.26
A * B * C = $1,401,566,602.80 to house every death row inmate until execution(that is including housing, food, lawyers etc.)
A. Number of inmates serving life sentences: 127,677(in 2002/2003, supposedly the numbers have only gone up since then)
B. Average cost to house an inmate for life sentence: $1,500,000 or $1.5 Million
A * B = $191,515,500,000 to house inmates for life.
Remember this is all average and i shouldn't be quoted for exact numbers. if you have other figures or you would like to correct me you always can. i'm not saying we should just kill all inmates serving a life sentence. it would save us money but that's only my opinion. and also death row inmates shouldn't be on death row for that long. i believe the most time spent on death row was 29 years. sadly most inmates in prison never get even close to a high school education. as of now we have no real rehabilitation methods set up to get inmates education and life skills needed to send offenders back into the real world to contribute to society. granted individual prisons may have such programs but i'm speaking for the whole. i believe our money would be better spent rehabilitating the nonviolent offenders instead of letting them out(after getting free room and board) to commit more crimes. anyways that is my thought on the matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment