Dear Jonah… I am a former “correctional officer”/hack/guard, etc in the federal prison system. Worked in an all male high security penitentiary, not the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, IN with its death row. Anyway, worked around several “lifers”: Mafia types convicted of multiple murders, drug murders,child molesters/murders, etc. I support the death penalty for several reasons: (1)
contrary to many a Christian, these people in for life do NOT spend their days or nights pondering their crimes. No, everyone in prison is innocent or framed by “the man.” These epeople do not wake up in the middle of the night and suddenly realize what a horrible thing they did. These people are criminals who operate by a different set (or lack thereof) of moral standards or controls than the rest of us,
hence, they’re in prison; (2) all these do-gooder liberals who are against the death penalty really wouldn’t want any of these poeple living in their homes or neighborhoods being “rehabilitated”; (3) these same liberals would not want their spouses or children or themselves working in these prisons. Oh no, what “demeaning” work. Well, someone has to do it. Why not them? Or is prison work only for poor whites living in some rural backwater? I worked with
mostly white males, many of whom had at least a four-year degree and some even with masters (note: BOP has had a difficult time recruiting qualified blacks
because of the stigma of a black person working for the system who oppresses his brothers; (4) I am a college graduate and former Naval officer who used my
employment in the Bureau of Prisons to get my foot into the door of federal employment and when you have criminal justice degree, what else is there? (5)
unlike robbery, how can a murderer or rapist, for that matter, make amends? Theorectically, the bank robber can repay the money he stole, but the murderer? One cannot bring back the dead.