Proposal to Streamline and Make Our Death Rows in Prisons More Efficient at a Better Cost to TaxPayers
This proposal is to implement a better and more cost effective way to put a prisoner to death. To this point most states have used the following, and beside each I will put the reasons such are not cost-effective, or unable to be used:
1. Death by hanging – said to be cruel and unusual
2. Electrocution – electricity is a commodity that in this day and age needs to be limited. The environment takes a toll when one uses electricity to put a person to death.
3. Lethal Injection – this requires a doctor, easily wasting money
My proposal is simple. Starvation of a prisoner on death row is not only ethical (re: Schiavo case) it is also cost efficient. Past cases have shown this to be neither cruel or unusual, and the process has went through courts with little mass media coverage, or public outcry, except for from pro-life proponents who will argue against the alternative death row procedures as well. Each year we spend over $22,000 per prisoner to house, clothe and feed a prisoner. One that is on death row must also have burial cost picked up, and starvation would easily pay for those expenses when seen with also not using other more costly alternatives. If we look at a cost of $10 dollars a average for a prisoner and an average time till death of about 7 to 15 days, depending o the person. Of course also dehydrating the person would speed up the process, allowing the person to die in 3 to 4 days, a much more humane way of putting the person to death.
One may argue that this would cause severe trauma of the person, but one must also remember that the person being put to death is guilty in a court of law and has brought this on themselves. Can you name one person who the courts have ordered to die that did not deserve such? Such an argument is irrational, and unproductive in this case.
To successfully implement this the following conditions would have to be met:
1. No visitors. The visitors might give food to the prisoner and only prolong the ordeal, at higher costs to taxpayers.
2. No media coverage of the death. This will only give room for critics to talk.
In conclusion, this would easily save the prison system over a million dollars a year, if implemented correctly. Florida is leading the way in this new death row process and I would suggest sending observers to the state to speed up implementing this in your state.
by: Nick Queen
Thanks.