California Considers End to Death Penalty to Save Money

Californians have been asked to consider putting an end to the death penalty. However, the issue surrounding the campaign does not have much to do with human rights or moral grounds, but rather with the question of cost.

According to a report by Reuters, proponents of repealing the death penalty say the system, with mandated appeals that can take decades, is so costly that it is putting a strain on the state’s already troubled finances.

Californians have been asked to consider putting an end to the death penalty. However, the issue surrounding the campaign does not have much to do with human rights or moral grounds, but rather with the question of cost.

According to a report by Reuters, proponents of repealing the death penalty say the system, with mandated appeals that can take decades, is so costly that it is putting a strain on the state’s already troubled finances.

Instead, they say a system of life sentence without a chance of parole could save the state hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

An independent budget watchdog, the Legislative Analyst’s Office, has said repealing the death penalty could initially save the state $100 million a year, later growing to $130 million a year.

Natasha Minsker, proposition campaign manager for ‘Yes On 34’, told the KGO network:

[quote] We pay $130 million extra each year for lawyers, investigators, judges, prison guards, all related just to the death penalty, and that’s all money being wasted. [/quote]

The state of California hosts nearly a quarter of the nation’s death row inmates but has executed none in the last six years after a federal judge ruled that lethal injections caused inmates too much pain and suffering before death. 

California had abolished the death penalty system in 1972 after it was found to be unconstitutional. Since voters reinstated the death penalty in 1978, 13 inmates have been executed in Californian prisons.

Jeanne Woodford, a former warder and leading advocate of the death penalty repeal, told Reuters:

[quote] It is a failed public policy that wastes so much public money. And it is an illusion. [/quote]

Related Infographic: Prison Spending vs. Education Spending in the US

Reuters also cited a 2011 study by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals senior judge Arthur Alarcón and Paula Mitchell, an adjunct law professor at Loyola Law School, whose study found that the death penalty has cost the state approximately $4 billion since 1978.

Calling the capital punishment system in California the “most expensive and least effective” in the nation, the Alarcón-Mitchell report said a system of life without parole as the judicial system’s highest punishment would cost only $11.5 million a year.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said housing an inmate costs around $55,500 annually per prisoner. It does not break that down by sentence or crime.

Californians will vote on the matter on November 6.

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