The Death Penalty
Former President Trump almost did some great things. He almost built a wall, he almost motivated a successful insurrection, and he almost passed a rope-and-ladders ban to keep illegals from climbing the previously mentioned wall. Yet there is one thing he accomplished that Democrats won’t give him credit for: he personally saved thirteen people from psychological and physical torture.
Life in Prison
It is well known that conditions in American prisons are, to put it lightly, bad. Prisoners are routinely beaten, stabbed, raped, and killed by prisoners and guards alike. In fact, one in five inmates reports being assaulted during their incarceration. The danger of being behind bars doesn’t stop there; if you survive the beatings, you might die of completely preventable diseases. Heatstroke caused by insufficient A/C systems has killed dozens of inmates in Texas alone. The pandemic exacerbates these issues; 350,000 inmates have caught the disease as of January 2021. Furthermore, the (un)surprising lack of mental health services in prisons means that prisoners with mental health issues caused by their living conditions are often sent to solitary confinement: a punishment known to cause and exacerbate psychological harm. Calling our treatment of prisoners cruel and unusual isn’t strong enough language — we don’t even feed our pets food infested with maggots.
You might be thinking that to alleviate these problems we could release more prisoners, but there’s a serious issue with this plan: prisoners love being imprisoned. The Department of Justice has found that 80% of convicts reoffend within six years of their release. I mean, who can blame them? It’s not like they have anything better to do; one in four formerly incarcerated people are unemployed. No employer wants to hire someone with a 50/50 chance of being in jail within a year. There is only one never-fail method of getting prisoners out of cruel and unusual prison sentences: the death penalty.
It isn’t as simple as Ready-Set-Execute
We can’t just execute prisoners en masse. Trump had to overcome serious obstacles in his quest to kill thirteen people, and that’s less than .0006% of the 2.3 million Americans currently imprisoned. First, he had to find a way to do it. The firing squad wastes good bullets, and the electric chair really runs up the power bill, so most states, along with the federal government, have used lethal injection for the last 40 years. This worked fine until 2012 when the EU placed an embargo on selling sodium thiopental to prisons because “it’s wrong to kill people” or something like that. Soon after, American manufacturers ended shipments to prisons, citing similar concerns. To get around this the federal government switched to pentobarbital, a drug often used in pet euthanizations. While less effective, it gets the job done.
The second and more unavoidable problem is public disapproval of the death penalty. More Americans than ever before believe the death penalty is immoral, and even though they are the minority, these people are extremely vocal. Former pornstar turned former Kanye wife turned generally famous person Kim Kardashian heavily advocated on the behalf of Brandon Bernard and other death row inmates. This inspired numerous petitions (as if anyone cares how many people sign your sheet of paper) claiming that because Trump was a lame-duck president he shouldn’t have the authority to execute prisoners. Fortunately, SCOTUS (Sissy Court of the United States) ruled recently that executions during a lame-duck period are constitutional.
Trump managed to execute over a dozen people in the six months before he left office, even when prosecutors, jurors, and family members of the victims said the death penalty was unjustified. Nothing can stop an American hero.
Looking Ahead
Of course, all good things must come to an end, but we shouldn’t spend our time reminiscing about the good ol’ days of two weeks ago. Joe Biden opposes the death penalty, meaning that the 50 people on federal death row are unlikely to be “released” anytime soon. Even worse, the 2.3 million people in prison today who aren’t on death row are even less likely to be executed in the near future. 2.3 million Americans will be subjugated to inhumane living conditions unless we take action. I urge you to follow me on Twitter and sign this petition to convince President Biden to start the process of killing every prisoner in the US to ensure nobody will have to set foot in a jail cell again.
Originally published at https://virginica.substack.com.
