KTAR-FM posts, "The real cost of the death penalty in Arizona," by Cooper Rummel. There is audio at the link.
In Arizona, 119 inmates call death row home, and the majority of them have been locked up for several decades.
The last 10 Arizona inmates who were executed spent an average of more than 20 years in a Florence super maximum security facility within Arizona State Prison Complex Eyman called the Browning Unit.
And:
In total, death row housing fees cost the Arizona Department of Corrections $3,523,012.85 each year.
"It is a much higher level of security than your standard department of corrections unit -- even your high-security unit," Laroue said.
The housing costs, however, do not even begin to cover capital adjudication fees, according to Death Penalty Alternatives President Dan Pietzmeyer.
"The primary costs are trial costs, litigation costs and appeals costs," Pietzmeyer said.
A sentence of life without parole guarantees savings for taxpayers.
Earlier coverage from Arizona begins at the link. Related posts are in the cost category index.
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