I'm a firm believer in the death penalty, but I am also against federally mandated sentence guidelines (why a low level drug dealer, or even drug user spends far more time behind bars than convicted killers is beyond me).
It is always funny when people drag out the USA still having the death penalty, when many western countries don't any more, but what I've never been able to find is what is the attrition rate behind bars of those other western prison systems.
I mean, if you are in squalid conditions where inmate violence is very common, or poor health care, or poor nutrition.... well, you don't really need a death penalty.
But, in the USA, people behind bars live in better conditions as to health, education availability, unlimited appeals, and general living conditions than what many servicemen and women of the USA live in on a regular basis. (If prisoners had to put up with Tricare or the VA system, there'd be lawsuits coast to coast).
There are private prisons standing empty or underused in this country struggling to meet high standards of prisoner care, while government run prisons are so overcrowded that prisoners get early release if a bed cannot be found for everyone.
Sometimes it seems the whole system is falling apart. Prison system. Legal system. Political system. Infrastructure. Powergrid. Border security. Military Readiness. Medical care. Corruption. Government waste.
Where is the leadership?
