[
color=navy]Nothing is gained by keeping them alive. Alive, they still have the potential to victimize correctional employees, fellow inmates, and if they manage to escape or are later released by some bleeding heart, members of the general public. [/color]
I say we are going to have to assume those risks, but the longer we keep them off the streets the more difficult it will be for them to return to their brand of evil.
Why? I say we kill them.
Very few of the inmate population will actually require supermax status, and as they age they can in most cases have their security level reduced. For those that are not aware, most residents of supermax prisons are there because they annoy the administration by repeated/constant breaking of mostly petty rules. A little corporal punishment may resolve that problem with the majority of this population.
Prisons are in some ways like day care centers populated with overgrown children. If you cannot maintain order and discipline in a cell block, the inmates will soon learn you are soft. You will very quickly lose any semblance of control of the area. Problem inmates, those who repeatedly refuse to obey commands to lock in their cells when required to, who constantly get into fights with other inmates, who are verbally aggressive toward staff, or who physically assault staff members are candidates for super max. Not because they "annoy" the administration, but because they pose a threat to maintaining the security of an institution. A "little corporal punishment" is called assault and battery and will result in termination and prosecution.
Essentially the Supreme Court has said that inmates are entitled to the exact same treatment that folks at the lowest level of society get. This works out to be somewhere between what Medicaid (the state-run program) provides and what "the homeless" can get a free clinics. Prison health care is pehaps the worst example of managed care, with more treatments and procedures being designated as "beyond immediate necessity" or simply "not approved" than the worst HMO nightmare you have ever had. Not that I'm bragging or anything, but I currently have 13 daily prescriptions to address chronic conditions, as well as a pacemaker/defibrillator that is checked 4 times a year along with weekly telemonitoring. If I were incarcerated in Hawaii - perhaps the best correctional system for inmate health care - I would get 2 or possibly 3 of my current meds and my pacemaker checked once a year to see if the battery was running down. And I'd have to pay (admittedly at a rate discounted to take into consideration the amount of money an inmate can earn each month via institutional labor) what would be the equivalent of 75% - 85% of my income for my meds.
The Ohio Dept of Rehabilitation and Corrections has a contract with Ohio State University Hospital in Columbus. All the inmates from the 30 institutions throughout the state are taken there for advanced treatments, surgeries, diagnostic tests, etc. The inmate pays nothing. OSU is paid by the State of Ohio with their big checkbook, so inmates are given every test known to man. The biggest item on prison budgets is medical and mental health expenditures. In fact, it is so bad that not long ago, a couple inmates were released early due to the huge amount of money (over $1 million) spent on their medical treatment alone.
disability/unemployment benefits, etc. What cost do you place on another life lost to this animal?Which animal specifically are you referring to? The actual number of uncontrollable psychopathic killers who are a constant danger to their fellow inmates and the correctional staff who have to deal with them is so low as to be satatistically insignificant, even when you work with just the number of inmates at the single facility where they are kept. And if they are so bad, or you are so worried about them, we can always rehab Devil's Island, or a rock in the Galapogos chain, and just dump them there to see if they can survive. Bikini Atoll also works for me.
Actually, I was referring to those who would be imprisoned for life in lieu of the death penalty.
Remember, the system I am proposing is not "civilized" or "humane" in the modern sense of those words. But it does reduce the use of the death penalty to almost nonexistence.
Cruel and inhuman punishment is constitutionally prohibited, therefore your proposed system has no chance of being implemented. The death penalty is permissible (at least for now). I say that those who have earned it should be quickly and humanely put to death. No more worrying about them. They are permanently incapacitated.
