Since the death penalty was reinstated in California in 1978, 13 executions have been conducted. The system has cost state taxpayers about $4 billion over the past 33 years. This means that the state has paid about $308 million for each person executed. It is not hard to recognize that something is very wrong with this system and it needs to change.
A recent study by a Federal Judge Arthur Alarcon found that it costs about $175,000 to house one death row inmate for a year, compared to the $50,000 that it costs to hold an inmate in an ordinary prison. California currently has around 713 death row inmates.
This system would make a lot more sense if it were necessary to hold this many inmates at one time, but it is not. The average waiting time before a death row inmate is actually executed is more than 25 years. This means that most death row inmates are forced to stay in prison for a good portion of their lives anyway, before they are finally put to death.
To me, it seems completely counterintuitive to hold someone in prison for 25 to 30 years and then kill them. At that point, you are essentially putting them out of their misery while regular lifetime prisoners continue to rot in jail. The death penalty would only be an effective punishment if the person’s life was quickly ended after being sentenced. This method simply wastes money and resources for no reason.
It makes sense that most citizens still support the death penalty because it is natural to wish death upon someone who has committed a horrible offense. People who have had family members hurt or killed will obviously want the person responsible to receive the ultimate punishment. However, most people don’t know how much money it costs, and how much time it takes just to execute one person.
In fact, not a single inmate has actually been executed since 2006 because of an investigation into whether or not the death penalty procedures are considered “cruel and unusual punishment.” This makes the extra expense even more unnecessary.
Senator Loni Hancock from Oakland is planning to introduce legislation that would ban capital punishment, and I think it is a necessary change, especially in our current economic situation. People are always talking about ways to save money and get our state out of debt, and this seems like such an easy solution.
If you were asked to choose today whether to spend the next 25 years in prison and then die, or to spend the rest of your life in jail without possibility of parole, which would you choose? To me, spending the rest of my life wasting away in a prison cell sounds much more unbearable. Life without parole is still sentencing someone to death; they still die in that prison.
I believe that most Californians would oppose the death penalty if they knew how inefficient and expensive it is.
Hopefully this study will help people realize that it is a broken system that either needs to be changed, or abolished completely.
Matt Grippi is a senior journalism major and assistant opinions editor for the Summer 49er.
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