Death Penalty Cost

"Using conservative rough projections, the Commission estimates the annual costs of the present system ($137 million per year), the present system after implementation of the reforms ... ($232.7 million per year) ... and a system which imposes a maximum penalty of lifetime incarceration instead of the death penalty ($11.5 million)."

A county jail in Lawrenceville, Va., was designed for half as many inmates as it houses. Many states are trying to cut prison costs.     BY: Ian Urbina

Facts and Numbers

As of January 1, 2010 there were 61 women on death row and in the past 100 years, over 40 women have been executed in the United States.

The greatest costs associated with the death penalty occur prior to and during trial, not in post-conviction proceedings.

There are more than two million people living behind bars in the United States. Within five years more than two hundred new prisons opened in the United States. In 1982, the United States spent 19 billion dollars on policing, 7.7 billion dollars on the judicial system, and 9 billion dollars on its prisons and jails. By 2001, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics data, it was spending 72 billion dollars on corrections systems. 

By keeping criminals in prison for a couple of years or even for life, it is wasting tax money that could go towards other, more beneficial social programs. Taxes pay for criminals to stay alive and for what, so they can get free health care, three meals a day, exercise, a place to sleep, leisure time, and they don't have to work. California is the state with the largest prison expenditures. It was estimated to about 4.2 billion dollars in 2001. 

Video: Both sides to Capital Punishement.