When people hear the word death most cringe, it is not considered to be a calming or happy word, but when you add penalty it takes it to a new extreme. The death penalty is a sentence or punishment of death by execution. People think that death is bad, but the death penalty is okay, but what’s the difference, it is still death. This is a very controversial topic in today’s world. This is something given to people who have committed awful crimes, but does it really punish them or us? This type of punishment is not only a lengthy process, but it is extremely costly both in dollars and resources.
Many people consider the death sentence to be cheaper than life in jail because they no longer have to provide food and care for that one inmate, but …show more content…
Research has shown that most death row inmates in the U.S. typically spend over a decade awaiting execution and prisoners have been on death row for well over 20 years (DPIC). During this time the prisoners are generally isolated from other prisoners, excluded from prison educational and employment programs, and sharply restricted in terms of visitation and exercise, spending as much as 23 hours a day alone in their cells. The main reason that the death penalty is such a lengthy process is the desire to punish the prisoner in the cell before executing them. Dr. Stuart Grassian said, “The conditions of confinement are so oppressive, the helplessness endured in the rollercoaster of hope and despair so wrenching and exhausting, that the ultimately the inmate can no longer bare it, and then it is only in dropping his appeals that he has any sense of control over his fate” (Grassian). What Grassian is saying is the system is designed to make the prisoner’s life so hard that they no longer want to live and may take the appeal because they would rather die than be sent alone thinking about what they did. A very famous death penalty case Cameron Todd Willington’s. He was a father who set his house on fire killing his three daughters. This case began in 1991, but he wasn’t executed until 2004. That is thirteen years of time and money put into a guilty man’s case when they could’ve just given him lifetime incarceration with no bail and move
Many people consider the death sentence to be cheaper than life in jail because they no longer have to provide food and care for that one inmate, but …show more content…
Research has shown that most death row inmates in the U.S. typically spend over a decade awaiting execution and prisoners have been on death row for well over 20 years (DPIC). During this time the prisoners are generally isolated from other prisoners, excluded from prison educational and employment programs, and sharply restricted in terms of visitation and exercise, spending as much as 23 hours a day alone in their cells. The main reason that the death penalty is such a lengthy process is the desire to punish the prisoner in the cell before executing them. Dr. Stuart Grassian said, “The conditions of confinement are so oppressive, the helplessness endured in the rollercoaster of hope and despair so wrenching and exhausting, that the ultimately the inmate can no longer bare it, and then it is only in dropping his appeals that he has any sense of control over his fate” (Grassian). What Grassian is saying is the system is designed to make the prisoner’s life so hard that they no longer want to live and may take the appeal because they would rather die than be sent alone thinking about what they did. A very famous death penalty case Cameron Todd Willington’s. He was a father who set his house on fire killing his three daughters. This case began in 1991, but he wasn’t executed until 2004. That is thirteen years of time and money put into a guilty man’s case when they could’ve just given him lifetime incarceration with no bail and move