Wasted Years

Welcome to the second installment of a series of posts detailing how I would run things if I was in charge. Before I get started, let's go over a few ground rules:

- Be prepared to disagree with me. It's your right to disagree with me. But as far as your opinion is concerned... you're wrong. Remember, this is called "If I Was In Charge".

- Be prepared to think of me as a "cold-hearted barbarian". I'm O.K. with that. It beats being a "tree-hugging hippie".

- Feel free to leave a comment or two. I love it when people leave comments... it lets me know that people are reading my blog. And, sure, you can leave your opinion in your comment. But remember that my opinion is the only one that matters in this category of posts.

O.K... they're not rules so much as they're a set of guidelines. Sue me.

Anyway, a few months back I was having a conversation about the death penalty and how I'm for it. I was informed that it costs more to execute a death row inmate than it does to keep them in prison for life. I was flabbergasted! How could it cost more to kill someone than keeping them alive? That didn't make sense to me until I sat back and thought about the flaws in our death penalty system.

So I've come up with some ideas for a leaner, meaner capital punishment system. Without further ado, I present:

If I Was In Charge: Capital Punishment

1. First and foremost we need to shorten the entire conviction,sentencing, and appeal process. If someone is found guilty of a heinous crime and is sentenced to death, from that point forward they are entitled to three (3) appeals. If after the third appeal process, the sentence still stands then the execution takes place immediately. One, two, three strikes you're out! Also, the appeal process can last no longer than six months.

2. With a quicker appeal process in place, 'Death Row' becomes a truly scary place with a maximum stay of six months (six months for the condemned who appeal, that is). At the end of six months, it's execution time. For the condemned who decide to take responsibility for their actions and face the music, executions will be carried out in as quick a manner as possible.

Let me break here and explain my reasoning behind these two. As of 10/1/02 Illinois had 160 inmates on death row (until our previous governor granted them all clemency). The per inmate cost was $27,466/year with the average death row stay being thirteen years. So if my math is correct, we were basically paying $4,394,560 for a year's worth of inmates waiting for death. Now if we have an inmate who rides it out for thirteen years, he costs us $357,058 for his thirteen year tour. Of course he's an example. But can you imagine the bill for ten or twenty inmates taking up space for thirteen years? Oh yeah... did I mention the longest death row stay was twenty-two years?

So what it comes down to is cutting costs. And by limiting death row stays to a maximum of six months, an inmate on death row would cost us $13,733. That's not such a bad deal to me when compared to the cost of keeping inmates on death row for years. Now back to my plan.

3. A lot of states spend a lot of money on 'humane' methods of capital punishment. Why? It's generally an inhumane act committed against another living person that puts a person on death row. Explain to me why we should be humane and spend a lot of money doing it. My solution is quite simple. And cheaper. It's called a bullet in the back of the head. If $16.95 for a box of fifty rounds of ammo isn't a good deal, I don't know what is (That breaks down to about $0.34 an inmate for execution costs). If that's too much for some people, we can go back to rope and a tree. Either method seems cheaper than fancy gas chambers and lethal injection chambers.

4. Make executions public. Let potential murdering scum see what will happen to them when they get caught. Let them know we're done fucking around.

This could work. But only if we stop pampering the fucktards who wind up on death row and giving them seemingly endless chances to escape the fate they deserve.

This "If I Was In Charge" post is only a small piece of my complete overhaul of the justice system. I'll cover my proposals for a broader overhaul in my next IIWIC post.

And remember... it's O.K. to disagree with me. But if you do, you're wrong because this is the way things would work if I was in charge.