🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan08.181043.16982@Celestial.COM> bill@Celestial.COM (Bill Campbell) writes:
>In <1993Jan5.212321.23381@tera.com> erik@tera.com (Erik Hedberg) writes:
>
>....
>:Further clouding the issue is the fact that "life without parole" is
>:*cheaper* than execution.  Some people might not agree with this, but
>:this is what I was taught in a criminal law class in college.  You can
>:do the math for yourself.  If it costs $40K/yr to house inmates, and
>:about $100K to build a cell, and the "average" inmate in question is
>:sentenced at age 27, lives to age 75, this comes to (75-27)*40K + 100K
>:= $2.02M (in a new cell).  This is a lot, but the costs of appeals
>:easily exceeds this.  Remember, government pays the prosecutors,
>:defense attorneys, and the judges.  The figure we were taught (in
>:1975) was about $10M for capital appeals to be exhausted.
>:Streamlining the appeals process reduces the $10M, but it needs to be
>:cut by 80% to match the $2M.
>
>Simple solution -- hang the lawyers!  This will eliminate the
>appeals and much of the backlog in the courts.





The cost breakdown of keeping a prisioner in prism for $40k/yr is
a bit erronious at best.  One needs to keep health care in mind as
well.  Medical, dental, and optical costs will far exceed that amount
as the prisoner ages and requires additional services.  Leagal costs
need to be factored in too.  Each time a parole hearing is held
will add to the cost of housing the convict.  The other unaccounted
for cost is inflation.  Costs continue to climb North for all essentials
of life.  This $40k/yr amount is not going to be valid several years
down the road.  There is one other scenerio, what do you do with a 
criminal who kills while sentenced to prison for life?  

Sol'n - Hang 'um and hang 'um high!

The idea with the lawyers is admirable too.



-- 
A town that had they Nativity scene thwarted by the ACLU placed a banner
saying "The ACLU is jealous of our Nativity scene for the fact that they
don't have 3 wisemen and a virgin in their organization".