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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The death penalty
| quote: | Originally posted by St_Andrew
Okay, these figures are from a Swedish political party (they are against capital punnishment). Anyway, according to them it costs about 2 million USD to execute someone in the US, while it only costs about 450 000 USD to keep someone for life in prison. So it's almost 5 times as expensive to execute someone, guess that's waste of tax payers money? 
If you could prove me wrong, that would be interesting (esp since it would be fun putting down on that political party I got the figures from ). If not it's cool too cause then I was right |
Lol. Well I certainly don't have any specific figures or studies to back me up, but just think about the cost of food, medicine, etc. for a 30 year old in prison. It just seems like good ole' common sense.
Let's just assume a cheap $3 per meal, 3 times per day...(I'll assume the guy lives to be 75, so 45 years of prison)...3 meals per day = 21 meals per week, or just figure about 1100 meals per year at a cost of $3 per meal = about $3300 per year on food alone. multiply that by 45 years and you've got close to $150K in food costs alone. Let alone costs to operate and maintain the prison, healthcare costs, the cost of the property the prison is on, etc. I have no idea what the total is, but 1 bullet at WalMart probably costs about $0.50. One crank of the handle for the electric chair probably uses $50 worth of power at best (again, guessing, but based on my electric bills, I'm sure it's a reasonable assumption). One needle full of potassium chloride is probably less than $50 too. Point is, you can try to throw in all sorts of intangible costs to justify not taking a life away, but if you just think about the math, I don't understand how it could possibly be cheaper to pay for a person that is alive for years vs. a person who no longer exists. Think about it. IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. Alive or dead, the court costs apply in both cases so it's a moot point. If you're sustaining someone's life, it costs money. If you don't have to pay to sustain a life that no longer exists, it doesn't cost money. There's your answer. No need for politics. Just use your noggin.
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