California Death Row Costs $178 Million a Year
22nd June 2011
Somehow California manages to spend a whole lot on something it’s not even doing. Our friends on the left coast haven’t executed anyone since 2006 but they have more than 700 prisoners waiting on death row — the most of any state. More impressively, according to a new study from the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, California managed to spend $4 billion on death penalty expenses, with 13 prisoners executed since the reinstatement of the state death penalty in 1978. (54 prisoners, on the other hand, have died of “natural causes.”)
My granddaddy used to say that the only thing that saves us is, we don’t get all the government we pay for. But this is ridiculous.
June 22nd, 2011 at 16:52
Maybe they could arrange a prisoner exchange with Texas. All the legalities aside, Texas would be happy to reduce it prison population.
June 23rd, 2011 at 11:42
Farm out Kalifornia’s penal system to China. “Death Row” in China is a hallway that leads out to an execution area. Very low overhead – in fact, they bill the prisoner’s family for the bullet. There is the pesky cost of a burial or cremation, but that is more than offset by the sale of usable organs. Kalifornians should love the process because of this eco-friendly body part recycling.
June 23rd, 2011 at 14:42
And you can use the leftovers for fertilizer. It’s biodegradable and organic.