Sunday, November 29, 2015

Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Change is inevitable with the passing of time, and it seems that people have become more and more open to the idea of ending capital punishment. As the graph above shows, states without the death penalty seem to greatly prefer life in prison to the death penalty, while states with the death penalty show a slight preference for life in prison. While the latter may seem insignificant, it represents an evolving public attitude towards the death penalty, which could lead to some positive changes in the future.

I received a comment on one of my previous posts pointing out that the death penalty could relieve on problem - the overcrowding of American prisons. However, I would like to point out that this is not the only option available. This article provides ideas for new options, excluding capital punishment. It instead suggests revamping habitual-offender laws, implementing misdemeanor reform by decriminalizing offenses, limiting the use of pre-trial detention, and imposing non-prison penalties on those arrested for technical parole and probation violations.

Life in prison is clearly the most appropriate alternative. Some people may be misinformed and believe that getting rid of the death penalty means criminals will be put back on the streets to cause more damage. This is not the case. Instead, life in prison without parole is the most likely alternative. As I've pointed out in previous posts, it costs less than capital punishment, and prevents the deaths of the wrongly convicted.

Another comment I've gotten in response to one of my posts states that capital punishment may be more humane than life in prison. However, I'm not sure anything is less humane than vengeance-driven legalized murder. This also leads into a bit of a gray zone - if a criminal actually preferred the death penalty to life in prison, should that option be offered? Honestly, this is something I'm not entirely sure there is a good answer to, but I'm curious to see if anyone else has a solution - if you do, leave a comment.
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 29, 2015 at 5:23 PM

    Great post! You might want to put the article title as a link.

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  2. MaryKate November 30, 2015 at 9:32 AM

    I think it's crazy that people believe that if they don't kill the prisoners, that they'll be put back on the streets. The only reason why we have so many prisoners in the first place is that we put away people that haven't really done anything serious in the first place.

    Prison is supposed to be a punishment, but that doesn't mean that the criminals can't be contributing to better society. If we can make it so that they truly help, then life imprisonment would be great for the country, because then we would have a lifetime of work.

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  3. AnonymousNovember 30, 2015 at 9:35 AM

    I find it interesting and hopeful that the growing trend is more in favor of life in prison over the death penalty. I think the biggest obstacle to this trend is lack of information because it does seem hard to believe that food, clothing, and medical care for a life time could be less expensive than just killing them.

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