Today, Governor Brown announced that he would be taking 48,000 cell phones away from state employees, in order to reduce costs. Chron:
“In the face of a multi-billion dollar budget deficit, a cell phone may not seem like a big expense. But spending $20 million, and perhaps far more than that, on cell phones can’t be justified,” he said.
You know what would save even more money? Repealing the death penalty.
That’s exactly what the Illinois legislature did today. And what did they cite as the reason, beyond just innocent people being sentenced to death? The cost of killing people for their crimes. ABC News:
“Illinois has spent over $100 million in 10 years and hasn’t put anyone to death,” said a sponsor of the Illinois bill, State Rep. Karen Yarbrough, a Democrat. “It’s time to put this barbaric practice to rest.”
As states struggle to cope with major budget shortfalls and even the prospect of bankruptcy, they’re confronting the fact that sentencing someone to death is extremely expensive.
In California, for example, a 2008 report showed that the $137 million annual cost of maintaining the criminal justice system would drop to just $11.5 million annually if the death sentence were abolished.
$125.5 million dollars is a whole heck of a lot more than $20 million from taking away cell phones from state workers and likely reducing their effectiveness.
What I want to know is how many kids will go without health care because the state wants to keep killing people?
Talk about fiscal irresponsibility…
The death penalty is expensive, and for good reason. As a society, while we have decided to keep the death penalty, we have found that the rate of false convictions is uncomfortably high. So, we give the convicted many, many opportunities to be cleared. And this is a very good thing, but it makes the system expensive.
When it comes down to it, is all that extra money worth it? Are we made more safe? No, study after study has shown that LWOP (life w/o parole) has the same deterrent effect as the death penalty at a lower price tag, even if you look past the moral arguments.
I’m glad to see this positive step in Illinois, just as I was glad to see Gov. Richardson sign the bill eliminating the death penalty in New Mexico last year. It’s long past time.
throw in legalization+taxation of marijuana, and we’d really save some money.
This is a good time to repeal the death penalty. Although I oppose the death penalty for reasons unrelated to the fiscal issues, any reason to get rid of it is a good reason.
I think a few people would be swayed by the idea that that much money could be saved as a consequence. It sounds astounding to me. Any links to that report for California?
Its unfortunate that Arnold didn’t commute all the Death Sentences on his way out to help the close the Deficit. Then Brown could have closed and sold San Quentin.
As much as I would favor eliminating the death penalty in California for both fiscal and moral reasons, now is not the time to do so.
Too many Californians favor the death penalty and it would be opening a can of worms if this proposal was supported by the Governor. I think you probably forgot that the last time that the death penalty was significantly messed with, a very good woman, Rose Bird, was removed from the state Supreme Court by the people of California.
We need to get that tax bill passed in June, because if it is not, disaster will reign on K-12 in California. I think the Governor fashioned his budget proposal so that voters will not be voting on giving money to the “corrupt politicians,” (no, I don’t believe that they are), but on schools for their children.
Also, although cutting money for cell phones, the Governor’s office, and the like are symbolic, they are important symbols. The Governor’s budget is hard on everyone, especially HiEd and poor people, although it would have been much worse if his opponent had won.
If we just improved the general welfare of people and really attacked racism with a iron fist many of the reasons that people end up in jail are due to circumstances beyond there control largely. Born into poverty, born into drug abuse, born into legacy of abuse.
Ending State Sponsored murder of human beings is just the start of what SHOULD HAPPEN.