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Controversial Issues Concerning The Death Penalty

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Defining the Issue
Execution is the ultimate, irrevocable punishment: the risk of executing an innocent person can never be eliminated. The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is an execution done by the government or state as a punishment for a serious crime. There are controversial issues over the death penalty and extremists from both sides widely express their opinions. Such issues include the chance of an innocent person being put to death, the death penalty being a racist form of punishment, and the cost of the death penalty versus life imprisonment. The death penalty breaches two essential human rights: the right to life and the right to live free from torture. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN …show more content…

Supporters see the death penalty as the only deserved punishment, whereas opponents of capital punishment see the corruption behind it, such as a scenario in which someone is unjustly condemned. In some countries, the person one sleeps with can result in condemnation, in contrast to the places that reserve it for the acts of terror and murder. Some countries execute people under 18 years old when the crime was committed, while others use the death penalty against people who suffer mental …show more content…

They face isolation from prisoners, exclusion from prison educational and employment programs, and restriction in terms of visitation and exercise. The inmates' living conditions examined by Dr. Grassian were extreme: a 6 × 9-foot cell with no window to the outside world, furnished only with a steel bed, steel table and stool, and a steel open toilet, all lighted by a single 60-watt bulb. There was no television, radio and reading materials other than a Bible. The cell has a solid steel door shut throughout the day with only a small plexiglass window to an inner corridor. Psychologists and lawyers in the United States and elsewhere have argued that protracted periods in the confines of death row can make inmates suicidal, delusional and insane. Some have referred to the living conditions on death row – the bleak isolation and years of uncertainty until the execution – as the "death row phenomenon," and the psychological effects that can result as "death row

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The documentary solitary nation demonstrates the effects of solitary confinement on the prisoner’s health. There are several problems associated with using segregation as a punishment, however, the main problem is the effects to the mental health of the inmates. The documentary illustrate that some prisoner lost their sanity in solitary confinement. One example is what happened to the prisoner Adam Brulotte, at the beginning of his solitary confinement time he was optimistic and have plans to improve himself by reading books and think about his future, but only after twenty five days he started to lose his mind and become unstable, threaten to cut himself, pushes feces under the door and flooded the unit. This behavior clearly indicates segregation bad affects to the mental health of the inmates.

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Inmates in confinement have no contact with any human beings other than the guards, and this often leads to extreme mental health problems. Additionally, many inmates do not receive proper medical treatment and are left with severe physical health complications. One example of these health problems is presented in an excerpt from the American Law Yearbook from 2017. In this excerpt, the authors say, “Those held in solitary confinement are often subject to physical torture, including different types of restraints. Prisoners report that they also endure nonphysical torture, such as sensory deprivation, forced insomnia, permanent bright lighting, and extreme temperature.”

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