The punchline here – not included in the article – is that “savings” are a perennial anti-death penalty talking point. Housing a death row inmate in California costs the state three times more than housing a normal inmate, much of the extra burden coming from perks. Now some people might be inclined to view that travesty as a justification for reducing the privileges rather than the number of death row inmates. Those people obviously lack the subtle insight of California lawmakers:
In October in Orange County, Calif., Billy Joe Johnson, who had just been convicted of murder as a hit man for a white supremacist gang, begged the judge and jury, in all sincerity, to sentence him to death. Johnson knew that those on California’s death row get individual cells and better telephone access, nicer contact-visit arrangements, and more personal-property privileges than ordinary inmates… Johnson was so eager to be put on death row that he tried to confess to two murders that no one yet knew about.
Now the disincentive that’s supposed to prevent people from asking for the death penalty is – not to put too fine a point on it – death. But California has managed to execute a grand total of 13 out of almost current 700 death row prisoners since 1977. Compare that to the possibility of a prisoner like this getting killed in race-related violence over a lifetime, and those are pretty attractive odds.
And then there are the perks to consider. Individual cells and personal-property privileges? That’s a new direction! I’d have to check, but I bet it’s probably easier to find somewhere to smoke on death row than it is in Burbank, CA. Actually I don’t have to check. Next up from the Sacramento nannie : soda.
Anyway, relative luxury for death row inmates but no more mammogram subsidies for women between 40 and 50. This state is magical.
References:
* News of the Weird: California’s Death Row: Bigger cells, better privacy, more stuff, and almost no chance of being executed! [LAT]
* Smoking Ban in Burbank, CA
* UPDATE 1-Calif. lawmaker plans hearings on soda-obesity link [Reuters]
* Death Panel in California Ends Mammogram Subsidies for Women Between 40 and 50 [Ace]
Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* American Politics
* Democratic Politics
* Law
