The Death Penalty: Feasibility Lost

The death Penalty Information Center has released a study that found that American states are wasting huge amounts of money because the death row system functions inefficiently.  With death row waits being as long as 3 decades due to a lack or organization of resources and states wasting upwards of $10 million a year, states' operation budgets are being questioned. 

Also in the study is a poll of police chief's opinions on the effectiveness of the death penalty in crime deterrence.  Three key points were found:

• The death penalty is the least useful for crime deterrence.  99% of police chiefs thought it was useless in crime prevention because criminals don't think of consequences before committing a very violent crime.
  
• The death penalty is the least efficient use of the taxpayer's dollars.  In terms of crime prevention they would rather have the money reallocated.
• Police chiefs would rather have the money allocated towards crime prevention rather than crime punishment.

I have no intentions to get into the ethics of the death penalty but if we were running a cost benefit analysis on it I think this report would tip the scales.  If costs are high and benefits are low it makes it really simple.

This whole cost-benefit analysis would really be tipped by a couple of other considerations.  The cost of a prisoner's last meal.  Previous meal requests are posted online via: deadmaneating.blogspot.com . 

And an examination in "Freakonomics" regarding the quality of life on death row: