That's the title of an OpEd in the Sunday edition of the Contra Costa Times written by Mike Radelet and Werner J. Einstadter. Radelet is co-author of a recent deterrence study, Einstadter worked in California corrections and is Einstadter is a professor emeritus of criminology and sociology. LINK A
NEW survey of America's leading criminologists has concluded that the
death penalty does not deter homicide any better than long
imprisonment. Eighty-seven percent of the experts believe that capital
punishment can be abolished without any adverse effect on the murder
rate. Why then is California keeping this
expensive but unproductive policy when it is facing in excess of a $26
billion deficit? It is astounding that the state is spending $137
million per year to retain the death penalty and getting virtually
nothing in return. The certainty of a punishment is a more
effective deterrent than its severity. In California, nearly 40 percent
of all homicides are not solved. If the state is serious about reducing
the homicide rate, it is much more constructive to spend tax dollars on
apprehending murderers and administering prompt punishment than on
executing those who we know will already die in prison. In
recent years, public confidence in the death penalty has been chipped
away by DNA exonerations, evidence of massive inequities and racial
bias, its failure to give "closure" to victims, and a general sense
that the system is too broken to be fixed. Since 1973, 133 people in 26
states have been released from death row because of innocence. Three
were in California.
However, many studies have shown that murderers do not carefully weigh the costs and benefits of their actions. Anyone who can be deterred from committing murder by the death penalty can also be deterred by the less expensive alternative, life in prison without parole. Because of security requirements, each inmate on death row in California costs about $90,000 per year more than what it costs to incarcerate a prisoner serving life without parole.
Most police officers agree that the death penalty does nothing to deter crime. In a nationwide poll of police chiefs, the death penalty was ranked last in effectiveness among crime-fighting programs behind reducing drug abuse, improving the economy and jobs, hiring more police officers and reducing the availability of guns.
And:
California faces difficult fiscal choices. Ending the death penalty, an enormously expensive punishment that offers nothing for public safety, should be a no-brainer. Doing so would save California $1 billion over the next five years. About $1 billion would go a long way toward rehiring police officers, solving cold cases, making drug treatment available and other programs that reduce crime and make a difference in people's lives.
Earlier coverage of the Radelet & Lacock study begins here; more on the California cost debate, here.
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