Each day, headlines scream the unwelcome realities of the current global economic crisis. Jobs are shed daily. Businesses report billion-dollar losses. Bankruptcies and foreclosures are up in record numbers. And state lawmakers struggle to close a projected two-year, $8.7 billion dollar budget deficit.
While the largest federal economic package since the Great Depression has promise to upend this economic slide, a renewed and greater commitment to volunteerism by the business community could characterize these grim economic times as an occasion when Americans rallied together to make this nation a much better place.
The financial turmoil being experienced right now is unprecedented for many in the work force today. While it creates great uncertainty for businesses and families, it also offers a unique opportunity for the nation to remake its communities, cities and states.
There is momentum for a greater shared sense of community, much like the energy created nearly 50 years ago by President John F. Kennedy when he called upon the nation’s citizens to “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
Last month, in a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama made a similar request. “What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face and take responsibility for our future once more,” said the president, who called on Congress to adopt bipartisan legislation that would expand national and community service opportunities.
As the recession dramatically cuts the demand for countless products and services, resulting in layoffs and a reduction in employee hours, it presents an invaluable gift: free time.
Committing that free time to community service would help create a more positive environment during a serious economic downturn.
Civilized Justice
State lawmakers are currently considering a bill that would replace the death penalty with life imprisonment without the possibility of release for certain murders. This makes fiscal and ethical sense.
According to the state Office of Fiscal Analysis, abolishing the state’s death penalty would save the state $4 million annually, as well as other significant intermittent costs to state agencies to carry out executions and continuing litigation.
That’s much less than the estimated $660,000 it costs to incarcerate 10 death row inmates at Northern Correctional Institution.
Part of the savings would come from the elimination of the 14 employees with the state Public Defender Services Commission, which costs approximately $2 million annually to operate. The state could also cut significant costs associated with lengthy litigation pertaining to the constitutionality of the death penalty. For example, the OFA points out that since 2007, the state will have spent approximately $830,000 to hire expert witnesses to determine whether or not racial bias exists in the imposition of the death penalty.
The last time the state carried out a death penalty, it spent $316,000 to put convicted murderer Michael Ross to death. That doesn’t include the nearly $1.2 million spent on Ross on death penalty trials.
But when considering whether to abolish the death penalty, the consideration shouldn’t be just about cost. It should be about justice.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, between 1973 and 2005, there were 119 exonerations of death row inmates in 25 states.
Notably, none were from Connecticut.
If lawmakers abolish the death penalty, none of the state’s death row inmates would be released from prison unless new evidence exonerated them.
A lifetime within prison walls is a civilized, far less costly and just punishment for murder.
