The Cost of the Death Penalty

The cost of the death penalty is an argument that is frequently brought up when discussing the death penalty. The fact is the lethal injection (the most common choice of state administered death) in Texas in 2011 cost taxpayers $83.35 for the lethal compound, whereas in 2010 StatsCan estimated the average daily cost for a federal inmate as $357 or $130305 a year. Straight out of the taxpayers pockets!

 

This extremely high cost of incarceration shows that the Canadian government is willing to spend an extra more than $3 250 000 for a life term in Canadian prisons. Although the Canadian crime rates are at an all time low since 40 years ago (around the time of abolition of the death penalty) it shows that we spend over three million dollars to incarcerate and ineffectively rehabilitate some one in Canada. Canada currently chooses to spend millions of dollars to have a violent offender inserted back into society where he may return to his previous life of violent crime when we could humanely and cost-effectively ensure the safety of the Canadian people by executing said convict.