Let the Punishment Match the Offense The death penalty is an issue that is currently dividing our country 62% to 28% in favor of capital punishment. Capital punishment is the putting a criminal to death as a result for a crime, and this punishment is used in 32 of the 50 states in the US. Utilizing capital punishment could save taxpayers money, solve overcrowding in prisons and make grieving easier for the victims family. Over the span of one year, an inmate in prison accumulates an enormous bill, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to feed, clothe, work reimbursement and much more. According to Marc Santora, author of City’s Annual Cost Per Inmate is $168,000, Study Finds, studies show that the annual average taxpayer cost was $31,286 per inmate. “State corrections budgets often fail to reflect certain costs— such as employee benefits, capital costs, in-prison education services, or hospital care for inmates—covered by other government agencies,” (Henrichson & Delaney 1). Out of prison costs also can add to this already gigantic bill such as medical expenses, education costs, etc. All of these expenses …show more content…
If the inmates on death row were to be executed promptly, that would help eliminate some over crowding. According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, there are 471 prisoners per 100,000 US citizens. With an estimated 324,420,000 citizens, we have roughly 1,528,019 prisons in the criminal justice system right now. The Prison Policy claims that there are 942 correctional facilities, 102 federal prisons and 1719 state prisons all of which are accommodate almost 3,000 death row inmates. Any inmate who is sentenced to death row or a double life sentence, life without the chance of parole, that is sitting in our prisons is taking up space for other criminals who get to roam the streets because we do not have enough beds in our