When it comes to the death penalty, they need to do a couple of things.
1. Get rid of the Suicide watch. If they want to off themselves, it saves the country a lot of money.
2. Offer them a way to give back to society, and make up for what they took away from it. (E.G. A plan to be used for Medical Studies, and etc…). They are to die, and if they truly believe in an after life, the potential to save millions of lives may be a wash for their bad deeds.

3. Open a Colosseum! Winners get another “last meal!” Loser… well… is taken care of.
Ticket Sales, PPV, Toys, Product Advertisements, etc… would make boat loads of money.
We pay people to beat the hell outta people. And etc… Why not make money from something that is going to happen regardless?

lol, btw, in case i’m taken as being serious on #3. I want to say its a joke. Inspired by a stupid comment from an idiot on death row who brutally murdered a little girls family, then tortured and murdered her, and called ‘lethal injection,’ ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment.

And here are a few suggestions for the regular jails.
1. Quit letting people out ‘early’ for ‘good behavior.’ When you do that you negate the “Mandatory minimum sentences.” And you make a joke of going to jail. You are SUPPOSED to be good whilst you are incarcerated! If you are not, thats when they lengthen your stay.
If you are good, you still get stuck with what the judge gave ya. (no matter how ignorant the judge is. Thats why we have appeals. supposedly…).

2. Quit letting jails have perks and frills like T.V. and etc… You are here to be punished. Rehabilitated. Reeducated. and (if all goes well) Released.
Not come here, hang with ya old mates, learn some new tricks, make new contacts, get new addictions, be released, cause more crime, (and if ya still hopefully and idiot) get Reincarcerated.
Give them a Cot, Food, Water, Books, Counseling, and Solitude. (Cause you really should be reflecting on your deeds as ‘bad,’ rather than braggin to ya mates how ‘awesome’ it was, and how you’re going to do it differently ‘next time’). Prison is supposed to be bad. Not a High School Resort-Esq establishment.

But those are just my thoughts mate.
Keep up the great work!

I don’t want to ignite a religious argument, but I think that we also derive most of our attitudes about capital punishment from a day and age where most folks thought that some crimes were best paid for in the afterlife, however you want to construe it. I suspect we would find that, in societies where there is a widespread adherence to a religious doctrine that preaches an afterlife (for example, medieval Europe) life comes pretty dirt cheap. As a society begins to question the mythos permeating the religious culture, (usually after a scientific revolution like the enlightenment), however, this material life becomes more valuable because folks begin to suspect that this is all there is, or that should matter right now. By this logic, in that type of society, capital punishment *should* act as a greater overall deterrent, were it to be properly enforced. The trouble is that the materialist ideology values life *so* highly, that it is rarely employed effectively.

It also undercuts the idea that a particular religious ideology gives human life greater value, which may not necessarily be the case in all cultures. (and I think if we all used our imaginations a little, you might be able to think of a few that fall on either side of this issue.)

In the end, the abuses inherent in any system prevent the system from being implemented to it’s greatest potential, and innocents die as a result.

the founding fathers were smart fellas…better to let the guilty walk, than punish an innocent.