Some families do prefer life in prison rather than capital punishment. These families would rather have the money spent putting a person to death on them and getting them help for the loss of their loved one. Losing a loved one is a traumatic event. The death penalty does focus more on those convicted rather than the families who are suffering. Instead of spending millions of dollars on capital punishment, this money could be spent on helping the families and working on unsolved cases where some families never got closure for the death of a loved one.
Most families want the person who killed their loved one to suffer the same consequence: death. Sentencing a person to death is the only fair justice our court system could enforce because that
In some cases, life in prison would be less pain for a person than capital punishment; while in other cases, more pain would come from life in prison. The reason prison would be less pain is because the murderer would get to live a full life, just not in the real world. This is the easy way out. But, some prisoners do not like certain types of criminals because, depending on the type of crime, if a person who murdered another was sentenced to life in prison, the prisoners will take “good” care of that person. This means the person will wish he or she were dead rather than be in prison because the other prisoners will cause so much pain to the murderer. Pedophiles have the hardest time in prison. Usually, if their crime is known, they will not last long. For this reason, they are sometimes placed under protective
Richard Matt and David Sweat broke out of this prison, a feat no one has done in the 170 years the facility has existed. Cutting through concrete and steel walls, these two inmates, who lived in adjacent cells from each other, used power tools to do so. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says the prison undergoes regular maintenance, so for Matt and Sweat to obtain these tools is impossible (Yan, Holly 1). Since two convicted killers were able to escape from a maximum security prison in New York, other convicts in prisons around the country will think they can do the same
Many changes are made inside the justice system, but very few have damaged the integrity of the system and the futures of citizens and prisoners. Although the story seems to focus more on lockdown, Hopkins clearly identifies the damaging change from rehabilitation in prisons to a strategy of locking up and containing the prisoners. To the writer, and furthermore the reader, the adjustment represented a failure to value lives. “More than 600,000- about 3 times what it was when I entered prison, sixteen years ago. In the resulting expansion of the nation’s prison systems, authorities have tended to dispense with much of the rehabilitative programming once prevalent in America’s penal institutions” (Hopkins 157). The new blueprint to lock every offender in prison for extended sentencing leads to an influx in incarcerated people. With each new person
Santos, Michael G. Inside: Life Behind Bars in America. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2006. Print.
A life behind bars is not an easy life, but a life that many people become accustom to, not because these people want to, but because they have to. The prison life is one that includes adverse challenges, dangerous situations, gang violence, and unpleasant living conditions. As shown in the documentary, Hard Time: Worst of the Worst, the inmates at the Southern Ohio Correction Facility in Lucasville, Ohio are no strangers to the prison life. Opened in 1972, the prison houses some of Ohio’s most dangerous inmates, totaling 2,200 inmates. The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility is known as a level 4, or a maximum-security facility. Here, correction officers control each and every movement of inmates. The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility houses inmates who find themselves in trouble once they are in inside of prison, such as stabbing or killing another inmate. The inmates are then sent to Lucasville to serve “jail time” for whatever act they may have committed while in prison.
Supermax Prisons: Beyond the Rocks. Lanham, MD: American Correctional Facility, 2003. Rpt. in America's Prisons. Ed.
Bob McCulloch, Missouri state prosecutor, argues that this type of punishment is very appropriate. He also points out that the death penalty punishment is not applicable to the type of murder that we daily see on the television, or read about in the newspapers, but to those that are “particularly horrendous,” such as multiple murders, murders for hire, and so on (qtd in “The Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty”). He even goes on to describe one murder case that he worked on, as an example of a crime worthy of the death penalty. It’s the case of a man who gutted his girlfriend and her infant, and then cut off the baby’s head. A lot of death penalty supporters, sixty five percent to be more precise, believe in the Biblical saying “an eye for an eye,” arguing that the punishment really should fit the crime. They also believe that the family of a victim has the right to some type of a closure, and that the death penalty is the best way to provide them with one. John McAdams, Marquette University’s professor of political science, argues that by executing a murderer one cannot go wrong: “If you execute a murderer and it stops other murders, ...
The death penalty provides the victim’s families closure.[5] While the victim themselves are not alive to gain any closure from the situation, the execution of the perpetrator does bring a feeling of relief at no longer having to think about the ordeal.
Through two metal, cold doors, I was exposed to a whole new world. Inside the Gouverneur Correctional Facility in New York contained the lives of over 900 men who had committed felonies. Just looking down the pathway, the grass was green, and the flowers were beautifully surrounding the sidewalks. There were different brick buildings with their own walkways. You could not tell from the outside that inside each of these different buildings 60 men lived. On each side, sharing four phones, seven showers, and seven toilets. It did not end there, through one more locked metal door contained the lives of 200 more men. This life was not as beautiful and not nearly as big. Although Gouverneur Correctional Facility was a medium security prison, inside this second metal door was a high wired fence, it was a max maximum security prison. For such a clean, beautifully kept place, it contained people who did awful, heart-breaking things.
Opponents of this position argue that the death penalty is a necessary evil. One of the top arguments is that you must punish offenders to discourage others from committing similar offenses (Radelet 44). Many people also feel that the victim’s families deserve closure. The prisoners have to pay for their crime and deserve the punishment that they get. Using the death penalty helps deal with the overpopulation in prisons. There are not enough resources or space to house prisoners for life. This statement can be true to a certain point. However, when talking about sacrificing one person’s life for the greater good of society, no man should have the authority to end someone’s life. One of the biggest issues that opponents argue is how much the victims suffer if the killer is not put to death. A murderer not only affects the person they kill, but also the victim’s friends and family’s life. They have to live with the grief of losing a loved one. If the killer is not put to death they could get the feeling that someone is out to get them. They will not be able to rest until the killer is tried and executed. Although this side of the argumen...
...already in there for life, there is nothing to stop him or her from killing other prisoners on a spree. The death penalty ensures more safety in that sense, because the prisoner will most likely consider his punishment of life sentence as bad enough and not want anything worse.
Using capital punishment would put an end to the killer’s suffering, and let him leave the world peacefully. With the death penalty in place, the victim’s family can finally get closure. Families that have been through the intense experience of losing a loved one might call for lex talionis, or eye for an eye. They could believe that the killer took their loved one from them and the only acceptable recourse would be to take the murderer’s life. This retaliation for the family might be the most important reason to instill the death penalty in today’s
The Death Penalty should be discontinued to the families, human rights, and statistics. The families of the victim and the family of the one, who committed the crime, have no closure at all. The death penalty is killing a human for being convicted of a terrible crime one family may think its right but both suffer by their lost ones. “Although true closure is never really possible for the families, studies have shown that the continual process, along with the returning to court for many years, force families to confront the gruesome details of the crime many times over, making it impossible to get on with their lives. As difficult as that is the question is weather the victims needs are met effectively by killing someone else and causing another family grief and pain as well as adding to the cycle of violence.” (Progress) As both families do not want to see each other because they all have pain and hate for one another. They both relive the last memories of their loved one and they can’t help but cry and stare at the pictures they were once happy in. The families both have sadness when its their loved ones birthday. If the victim is married or have kids, their kids suffer and the husband/wife suffer as well. Although the families will never get there loved one back they still suffer on what had happen. Both families blame one another for having to take flowers, to their dead family member or visit their family member in a cemetery because of what happen. None of them is truly happy that they lost a family member. The families miss the person who seemed so happy, and also know that they are in a better place watching over them. Although the families aren’t happy about losing them, but are relieved to know that nothing else can hurt them. As one family feels sorry for the other family, there could be the family that doesn’t care what happens but wants everyone to suffer the way they are suffering about the tragic death of one family member.
"Common sense, lately bolstered by statistics, tells us that the death penalty will deter murder... People fear nothing more than death. Therefore, nothing will deter a criminal more than the fear of death... life in prison is less feared. Murderers clearly prefer it to execution -- otherwise, they would not try to be sentenced to life in prison instead of death... Therefore, a life sent...
Capital Punishment has always been a big question in peoples lives when asking how to deal with a prisoner dealing with life imprisonment. These prisoners have to put their lives in the hands of the judge and jury when putting out the punishment they get for the crime they committed. People have to decide if the crime the committed is worth ending someones life then and there or letting them live their life in prison. The death penalty to me is a horrible but needed part of life to prove a point to people who think getting away with crimes worthy of this punishment is worth doing. It puts the fear of god into people cause you are playing with god and your life when you have to decide between life and prison and lethal injection. Many states are still deciding whether or not they want their state to use the death penalty and that has kicked up a lot of controversy in there states population. Many different people on both sides of the debate on how to handle these types of criminals based on the crimes they have committed.
"Death row is a nightmare to serial killers and ax murderers. For an innocent man, it 's a life of mental torture that the human spirit is not equipped to survive." A quote by John Grisham that perfectly depicts the conflict associated with capital punishment. Ask anyone what their opinion is regarding the death sentence and you will surely be bombarded with passionate beliefs and convictions on both sides of the debate. What exactly are the pros and cons that come with condemning criminals to die? I will examine deterrence, the costs associated with life in prison versus death row, and how often the wrongly convicted are sentenced to death.
If a criminal is sentenced to life in jail, then the cost of their imprisonment would be many times this. In the USA, the average cost per prisoner annually in jail is $29,000. The cost of the drugs used for the lethal injection is believed to be $86.08. This is far less than the cost of keeping a prisoner in jail, and would save the government money that could be used to try and make the community a better and safer place. Secondly, many believe that capital punishment is right because of the justice given to the victim’s family.