Republican Sen. Jeff Denham has been pushing to close death row at San Quentin because it's so expensive to operate. Now the Atwater senator has a Democrat signing on to a plan to stop construction on an expanded death row at San Quentin.
The Bee's editorial board agrees with Denham and Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-Marin County, Read today's editorial on the subject by clicking here. Death row needs to be moved to a prison where it would be less expensive to build and operate.
Here's more from today's editorial: The expansion project at San Quentin has grown to more than $400 million -- more than $500,000 per death row bed. But it would capacity within a few years, and have to be expanded again.
Why is this site so expensive? Instead of solid ground, it turns out that most of the site is bay muds. The unstable soils will have to be removed and replaced with rock. This will require 15- to 20-foot-deep excavations and extensive measures to prevent seawater incursions. And they'll have to use a pile foundation, not the conventional spread footing.
Operating costs at San Quentin also will be high because the correctional officers are paid higher wages in the Bay Area. Expansion there would add about $58 million to Department of Corrections' annual costs.
Let's stop wasting money in our prison system, and move death row.
Move them all out to death valley and put them on a chain gang. Why should they be housed overlooking the bay.
I don't know if I'm for the death penalty anymore.Many of the victim's family members die before justice is served while the bad guys end up living longer than they would on the outside or in with general population not to mention the incarceration and legal expenses are astronomical.I say give them life with no chance of parole and throw them in with the rest of group at their own peril unless the criminal asks to be executed a week after the conviction...then honor their wish.I wouldn't waste any more money on a "Death Row".
The problem with a 'Death Row' is that it becomes a very LONG wait for that DAY to arrive. It is one thing to get the 'death penalty' and quite another to have is carried out any time soon. One hears of folks being on "Death Row' as long as 20 years. Bloody hell, no wonder there is no end in sight, and the cost of housing is going to get more and more expensive.
Moving 'death row' is not the answer as what community wants to have these very dangerous individuals as neighbors? It might well be time to send many of these inmates back into the general prison system with LIFE/NO Parole and free up space.
No, this old geezer is not soft on crime, but one has to realize that the present system is not working and unless the tax payer wants to pay and pay and pay, there has to be a better way to deal with this situation.
Mind, the Prison Guard Union would fight this to the death, so MOI guesses that the 'public purse' will be picked again with no end in sight.
My guess is that they will continue to fund expansion.
I used to think the best way to deal with the death penalty was to streamline the process...sentence, one appeal, last meal, death. No endless legal wrangling. I do not see that happening. You might think that these people deserve the ultimate penalty for certain crimes and perhaps they do, but it simply costs society as well as the taxpayer too much. I understand that to keep someone on death row costs many multiples of what it costs to incarcerate someone for life. I find myself agreeing with Jackie Krage...move them all out to Death Valley and put them to work.
I agree, keeping someone on death row is much more costly than incarcerating them for life. Too many costly appeals. Put them away, put them to work. It also alleviates the problem of killing the wrong person, as it has happened before.
There is always the "kill em all and let God sort em out" solution but that one is not very politically correct I think.
Send them to Texas where they actually do carry out the death sentence. They are really getting life without parole now since they dont execute them.
While we are on the subject of putting people in Death Valley to work, why not put all the prisoners back on chain gangs and make them pull their weight. We should take a queue from Texas on the death penalty and from Arizona for how to treat the other prisoners. In Arizona the prisoners live in tents outside and will continue to live there until the troops come home. Let's not build more prisons, let's just put up a really gnarly fence and put up a few thousand tents. Want to bet there would be fewer repeat offenders?
Re; the idea of "putting up a really gnarly fence..." Working on a no-bid contract, Halliburton has been quietly building very spartan concentration camps in the American southwest for seven years. Sounds like your idea, Chris, although it remains unclear who these camps are intended for.
i wanna see richard ramirez fry