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Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

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Imagine you are walking in the park with your child. It’s a lovely afternoon in April. The sun is shining, birds are chirping, and life is great. As you continue your walk, you notice a man approaching briskly. His arms are locked, indicating he’s carrying something. When he is within reach of you and your child, he pulls out his Glock and shoots your kid, once, twice, three times. You are now holding your child's lifeless body in your arms. The park police were close by and heard the shots and now have the gunman in custody. Now imagine that the worst punishment that the man will get is three square meals a day, free medical care, and a life of ease. Capital punishment, I believe, would be a very suitable outcome for this sunaryo. “Following …show more content…

The Death Row Ten are a group of inmates who feel that they have been wrongly convicted. This group of individuals states that Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge harshly obtained false confessions that landed them on death row. Luckily Aaron Patterson, Leroy Orange, Madison Hobley, and Stanely Howard were all granted pardons on January 11, 2003 (General). “The American prison system is massive. So massive that its estimated turnover of $74 billion eclipses the GDP of 133 nations. What is perhaps most unsettling about this fun fact is that it is the American taxpayer who foots the bill”(Kincade). How much would you guess it costs, on average, for one inmate in Illinois? $5,000? Or maybe, $10,000? Is it, $20,000? That’s right, it costs between $30,000 - $40,000 per inmate in Illinois (Kincade). “Some crimes are so heinous and inherently wrong that they demand strict penalties - up to and including life sentence or even death”(Top). I believe this to be true. If I were the family of a loved one who had been kill, raped, or harmed in some heinous way I would want justice to be served. I would not want to know that the person who harmed my loved one is getting three square meals a day, a bed to sleep in, AC in the summer and heat in the winter. The death penalty ensures that justice is

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United States Prisons: A Mental Cage The United States is one of the world’s most recognized and powerful superpowers since its industrial and commercial production along with their nearly limitless military budget make them practically invincible. This demonstrates the power of the United States on foreign soil and problems, yet many internal problems in the United States are left disregarded and neglected, simply thrown away. Citizens and lawmakers remain silent on several key social issues and on one of the biggest shameful topics of neglect, America’s incarceration rate.

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Prison has become a multi-billion dollar industry, leading to the privatization of prisons through partnerships between ALEC, and the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). When a state contracts CCA to run their “correctional facilities”, they must keep prisons filled. This is done, once again, by criminalizing minor offenses, raising bail, and lengthening sentences. The bail system, in particular, keeps many people that otherwise wouldn’t be in jail behind bars, because bail is set to numbers as high as $10,000.

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In recent years, anti-death penalty propagandists have succeeded in stoking the fear that capital punishment is being carelessly meted out. Ironically, Of the 875 prisoners executed in the United States in modern times, not one has been retroactively proved innocent. The benefits of a legal system in which judges and juries have the option of sentencing the cruelest or coldest murderers to death far outweigh the potential risk of executing an innocent person. First and foremost, the death penalty makes it possible for justice to be done to those who commit the worst of all crimes. The execution of a murderer sends a powerful moral message: that the innocent life he took was so precious, and the crime he committed so horrific, that he forfeits

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This study exposes the shortcomings of the US prison system. Although the prison system is a correctional system, its internal regulations primarily serve to damage rather than to help inmates better themselves. In addition, it is clear that the jail system cannot accommodate the number of inmates due to overcrowding. Large sums of money are allocated to prisons, but they are still filthy and unable to offer better programs to keep inmates out of jail and guide them to a reasonably successful future free from crime. Although the prison system exists to punish criminals, it is known for being oblivious to society since it is corrupt and overcrowded, conceals convicts experiences, and frequently alters its laws through reforms

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The Attorney General alone donates 15% of his budget, to death penalty cases. Maintaining each death row prisoner costs taxpayers $90,000 per year. It cost more than $31,000 to keep someone in prison for a year. The most recent report is that only fifteen states have gotten rid of it all together. These states being Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

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Kieran Thompson Ms. Klein E129 15 March 2018 The Prison Epidemic in the United States As long as humans are still truly human, the world will never be without crime, but the current prison system established in the United States takes advantage of the less fortunate and those who are of a minority race and puts them in prison by the masses. But mass incarceration needs to end, and people are starting to understand that mass incarceration is an unjust practice because of its biased laws and regulations, it’s terrible effect on the finances of the average American and its extremely negative effect on the minorities and juveniles of America of America.

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Since 1970, our prison population has risen by some 700% - an increase far outpacing rates of population growth and crime1”. The reason America has so many incarcerated people is not because Americans commit more crimes or the police are just better at finding criminals,

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The American government has long touted its need to protect the American public as justification for some of its for questionable laws and acts: Japanese internment, the Alien and Sedation Act, and the Internal Security Act. Each time the question must be asked who is excluded from the American public; few people ever include convicts, yet many still argue those convicts have rights: some people argue capital punishment is never ok and should not be met with excessive force. The rights of prisoners have seen that as the US population of prisons grows to .8% of the total US population the cost of keeping these prisoners quickly explodes, as well, to an astonishing $80 billion. With such a gargantuan price, politicians, economists, and concerned

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With only five percent of the world’s population, the United States has 25 percent of all inmates. It is upsetting to believe that in America prisoners are responsible for the high revenue in private prison companies. Many states have even signed agreements with private prison companies, guaranteeing that they will fill certain number of beds in jail at a given point. Ninety percent is the common rate; however, some private prisons have been able to get away with 100 percent.

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It costs up to about 25,000 to 30,000 dollars per year for each inmate kept in jail or prison. If everyone followed the law, the government and tax payers could put that money wasted on criminals to better use. White-collar crimes, such as fraud, are much costlier towards America than street-crimes. The cost of these crimes on America can be as high as 400 billion dollars annually. However, crime can cause more than just economical issues.

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A comparison between American prison systems and other prison systems around the world shows the massive difference in the way the United States views and handles crime and punishment. When looking at numbers revolving around prison, the public tends to reflect on the amount of people detained and how it seems that crime rates are at such a high. “Since 1991 the rate of violent crime in the United States has fallen by about 20 percent, while the number of people in prison or jail has risen by 50 percent” (Schlosser 54). When reviewing the systematic functions of United States prisons, we overlook the issues that surround prisons across the nation. Issues that not only affect those incarcerated but those who are living on the outside, in addition

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Each person convicted will basically pay $50 a day for their incarceration, and 43 other states charge room and board in prison at similar prices. For example, Chicago inmate Johnnie Melton had to pay almost $20,000 for his time incarcerated in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Emotional and Financial Tax: Cost to Family Members You may not believe that your incarceration will affect your family, but along with the emotional tax of having a loved one behind bars, you have the financial tax. State and federal prisons charge as much as 13 cents a minute, and for prepaid or interstate calls, the price skyrockets to 25 cents a minute. You can end up paying as much as $17 for a 15-minute phone call because you often face additional service charges like: Automated Payment Fees — $3.00 Paper Bill Statement Fee — $2.00

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According to the Bureau of Justice statistics, $50 billion dollars are spent on corrections annually, with the increase in spending over the past 20 years increasing faster than almost all other essential government services, including transportation, higher education, and public assistance. The national average that each prisoner costs the states is $23,000 dollars annually( Miller). Although prisons are effective at keeping criminals locked up, they are ineffective at creating law abiding citizens. Many, if not all, that are released from prison are no better off than the day they were arrested, and don’t have the skills or life stability to provide for their families and follow the law. Having a prison record on a person's record means that are unhirable for most jobs, meaning that the best job they can get are minimum wage jobs, which don't provide enough money to support their families or have the luxuries they want.

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It forces some prison facilities to operate like a home for the elderly. A prime example of this is at Lakeland Men’s Correctional Facility in Coldwater Michigan, where thirty-five thousand dollars a year minimum are spent on each prisoner. While this number is already far too large it does not include the medical expenses of the older residents which are estimated to be around double that (Freiss). One may argue that this is merely an isolated incident, which is unique to michigan. However one cannot argue with the quantitative surge of more than 1300 percent of the aged population in prison since the year 1981 (“At America 's Expense:...”).

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