The death penalty is rightDo you believe that people should be punished with the death penalty? People should get the death penalty because Americans are simply wasting our money on criminals who aren't learning their lessons. People should get the death penalty because they have too much privilege in prison for people to actually want to go there. People should receive the death penalty because if there were greater consequences for their actions there wouldn't be so many people in prison. It would be beneficial to American civilization to adopt the death penalty as the common punishment. For example, incarceration is not an effective tool for fighting crime. It's a fact that professionals will tell you that incarceration does little to stop criminals. We have become the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world. The increased prison population has not reduced crime or made Americans feel safer. Imprisoned Americans have tripled to 1.5 million. It is certainly appropriate to remove violent offenders from street crime (National Criminal Justice Commission 36). Prisons have not made significant efforts to reduce overall crime (Campaign for an Effective Crime Policy 45). It is the finality of the death penalty that instills fear in the heart of every murderer, and it is this fear of punishment that protects society (Crowe 41). As you can see, incarceration doesn't work for America's criminals. Second, people should receive the death penalty because our prisons are not very punitive or intimidating. People are not very averse to going to prison. In fact, some criminologists have argued that the overuse of the penal system for so many petty offenders has actually created more…middle of paper…inmates eventually returning to prison (Taylor 20). In summary, American criminals should get the death penalty to stop wasting taxpayer money. As a result, the death penalty is a superior choice in punishing criminals for many reasons. For example, Americans are simply wasting our money on criminals who are not learning their lessons. Also because in prison they have too many privileges for people to really want to go there. People should receive the death penalty because if there were greater consequences for their actions there wouldn't be so many people in prison. The death penalty should be adopted as soon as possible as the most common consequence of crime. Bibliography: Works cited Bender and Leone. The death penalty. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1997. Bernards, Neal. Prisons. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1990.