As cash-strapped states consider the high cost of sentencing prisoners to death, capital punishment has fallen on hard times.
In New Mexico, which voted to abolish the death penalty last year, State Rep. Gail Chasey (D., Albuquerque) specifically noted the tax dollars that would be saved. “We can put that money toward enhancing law enforcement, public works, you name it,” she said. In 2009, 10 other states considered ending capital punishment.
In New Jersey, which halted executions in 2007, a commission found that switching a single condemned inmate’s sentence to life without parole would save the state $1.3 million in incarceration costs alone, because death-row inmates receive special housing and security. Repealing the death penalty in North Carolina, where 169 prisoners are on death row, could save that state $11 million a year in incarceration costs and legal fees associated with the extensive appeals process, according to a study published in American Law and Economics Review in December.
Sunday 31 January 2010
Debating the Cost of Capital Punishment ☀
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