How come inmates with life sentences are not killed?

I mean I see all these prisons that are overpopulated and understaffed. Inmates are virtually allowed to fight and kill each other.


Well if all these people who are going to die in prison, why delay the process?


Oh yea, they want them to work for slave labor, all for the money eh.


What do you think?

well... the death penalty is expensive, inhumane, and drags us down to the level of those we execute.

i forget the exact numbers (though i could cite them if called to), but i believe that it costs about $250k to keep a prisoner for a life sentence... but it costs over $2 million to execute them because of the legal system becoming implicated.

That would make you a killer also. Which would take you to there level.

I bet youve heard that before.

Or maybe you believe in ten commandments, 'thou shalt not kill'.

Personally I think they should be stuffed in a factory and used as forced labor.

I am against the death penalty but that is for another thread. I would however support using inmates who are serving life or other long sentences be committed to working on infrastructure projects without pay. Since the tax payer has to folk out for the housing and feeding of lifers they my as well get something back in return.

But then again, although some life timers do calm down and whatever.


But how many guards are killed a year? Because a life timer "has nothing" to lose.


I am sure there are plenty of non life timers to do slave labor for cheap. The prisons are over crowded and the guard per inmate ratio is amazing. Get rid of these guys who are not needed.

Originally posted by racerzeke
But then again, although some life timers do calm down and whatever.


But how many guards are killed a year? Because a life timer "has nothing" to lose.


I am sure there are plenty of non life timers to do slave labor for cheap. The prisons are over crowded and the guard per inmate ratio is amazing. Get rid of these guys who are not needed.

But im going to try and stop you because I dont want to be a part of killing.

Yes I agree we have got a problem but there has to be other solutions.

Build more prisons? I highly doubt they will do that because they are too cheap. I once heard a story from a ex-con where he needed medication, 20 dollars a day, it was a nitro glycerin pill, and they said nope too expensive and he could not move for the whole day or his heart would of exploded, almost died. He had to get a lawyer and all just to get his medication.


I cant really think of a solution, except for less crime which I doubt will be coming soon in this world.

For many reasons.

1) A life sentence is 40 years, so if one was to receive one at 20, he'd get out at 60 if they actually kept people in prison for their term.

2) Many crimes could have a life sentence, not all of them for violent crimes. Hard to kill someone for a non-violent crime.

3) The death penalty is far more expensive.

4) There is no real punishment in death, for those in life sentences and those on death row.

There's more, but there are far more solutions that simply killing folks.

Well how about the folks who have multiple life sentences, and have absolutely no chance of getting out? I dont know, I just want a solution for the overcrowded prisons! I get so annoyed watching these lock up or history channel shows with the guard to inmate ratio is amazing. And how easy it is for a few inmates to overpower a few guards and have themselves tear up the prison. Or how there can be a riot in the yard and all the guards can do is spray some useless tear gas that just blows away.

but again, the death penalty is up to 10X as expensive as a life sentence... maybe even more. hell, they could use that money to hire more guards.

have some like black mambas ready for the kill. i just think they are a waste of space, creating over crowding, causing fights, riots, and it just irritates me.

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
the death penalty is up to 10X as expensive as a life sentence...

But is saving money more important than saving the lives of guards, other inmates who are in for lesser crimes, and possible more innocent people if they escape? They don't deserve to live in better conditions then innocent people, especially when they continue to put others at risk because they have nothing to lose.

So, what should they do?

Put all the lifers in a crowd and machine gun them in each prison nationwide?

Ship them to the desert and bomb them en masse?

Put them out to sea and dump them in the ocean?

How should they exterminate the lifers, zeke?

Doesn't really matter to me. Whichever way is quicker, so the people doing the job can get on with their lives.

I dont think they should be massacred but they should be killed in a semi humane way, as you most likely will not get a life sentence for a DUI or something minor, for them to have a life sentence they had to of done something serious. Or how about the men on death row who sit there for 20 years? Why not get it done quicker, these men have no incentive to behave well they have nothing to lose. Oh wow solitary confinement they still have the ability to run drugs, hurt inmates, or even hurt other guards.


I see all these shows like on Nat Geo were there gangs inside prisons, that launder drugs, cigs, and other illegal material. I am flabbergasted at how people who are supposed to be locked up can still engage in illegal activity.

Hear's an Idea how about looking at why you end up with crimminals in the first place, is it not the fact that the more prison populations increases it refects the problems of society.

Prisons should do 2 things remove personal freedom and rehabilitation, you need to look at why the situation has got this way, why do people end up serving life for petty crime or repeat offences.

The notion of murdering lifers due to cost opens pandoras box, lets kill the elderly because they are a burden, how about the disabled, the weak minded, the ones the Nazis called useless eaters.

In a civilised society you dont murder your own people, to do so renders you no better than the crimminals you lock up and is symptomatic of a sick society.

Yes, but the elderly, children, and the innocents who may not be up to par, but they do not deal drugs, murder, fight, riot, and all the other absurd things that prisoners do. If the prisoners are allowed to do all these things why not just let them free? The guards who work at these prisons are in immense danger because the inmates run the prisons, not the guards or the government.


I just cant believe that a place where it is supposed to be secure can be run buy the inmates.


This is the USA not a third world nation run by mercenaries, I just think the gov. should take control of the prisons, I cant believe they let the prisons pretty much do what they want.

I cant think of a better way to fix this problem other than reducing the population of inmates who have nothing to lose.

Oh yea, you can limit crime but that is way out of control also, and I wont even go there.

Each of our countries has to decide if the death sentence is an punishment that acts as a deterrant.

If a judge hands down a sentence of life, there should be no exceptions. That should mean that the person does not leave prison alive. They serve the rest of their life in prison.

So the question of this thread is why not kill prisoners with a life sentence rather than spend the money to keep them alive.

If we want the death sentence, then we must use our electoral power to elect goverments that will deliver this.

If we choose not to have a death sentence, then what to do with life sentence prisoners.

Use them. They are the property of the state and should be used to benefit the state. As cheap labour, or even better to test drugs rather than test on animals.

Thats not a bad idea, but I believe that the Government is too cheap to build new facilities to facilitate the growing number of prisoners. The main point of this thread is to come up with a solution of overpopulation in prisons (just for myself).

I mean I was watching this one show on Nat Geo I forget which prison it was but there were inmates in the gym I believe (if it wasnt a gym it was just a big open building) and they were sleeping on little bunkbeds, with no cells.


There were about 300 inmates with no bunks just mingling around with very little supervision by guards.


Of course they were all segregated blacks on one side etc. if you walked into the wrong place you would pay, which is absurd to me that this is allowed.

Basically, because killing is wrong, and to kill someone in prison makes you worse
than a murderer.

Now, you talk about overcrowding, well consider this, 1 out of every 10 prisoners in
the world are in prison in America, we have more people in prisons than anywhere
else in the world.

There are two main reasons for this
1. We don't try to rehabilitate people.
2. We make things crimes that should'nt be crimes in the first place.


As for those with lifetime sentences, well being in prison is there punishment.

I'm reminded of a quote I heard somewhere.
"Death is not punishment, punishment is living with your crimes and working to atone for them."