Disagree with the title statement in certain circumstances. If it's something like theft or using marijuana, something that doesn't directly hurt someone else, then I agree with it, but it's a different story if it's something like murder or rape. Even if one innocent person's life is ruined, is that worth the chance of a serial rapist or murderer getting out and ruining or ending dozens more? Also remember that murder has a ripple effect. You not only hurt the victim, but their family and friends, too. And with rape, you have someone that is traumatized for the rest of their life. I'd much rather ten murderers get locked up at the cost of one innocent person, because the overall toll would be much less. Of course, this whole argument is a false dichotomy. It's not like one innocent person is arrested for every ten guilty ones. In some areas it can get up to 9%, but that's a problem with the regional justice system, not the country as a whole.
And what kind of choice is this? What is the question even suggesting? The justice system is going to fail on occasion, and there will be someone who is arrested who didn't do anything. There's nothing anyone can do about that except work to tighten the system as a whole.
For the purpose of this argument, we'll assume all ten men have committed serious crimes rather than petty crimes such as shoplifting.
Because it completely changes the game, that's why. In that case, it becomes an issue of one innocent versus many. If these men were not successfully rehabilitated (which is very likely in the American prison system), their chances of offending again is high. This means more innocent people are hurt.
As far as the death penalty itself, I'm conflicted. Yes, you have the chance of innocent people getting put to death and individual rights. But then you have a person like
Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski, who was not only clearly guilty and freely admitted it, but also told interviewers with a completely straight face about his murders. He spent most of his life just killing people, whether because he was hired to kill them or if they just randomly pissed him off. You can read more about him at that Wikipedia page I posted. But the question is, what do you do with someone like this? Yes, he had a Freudian excuse because his parents were abusive and he had several mental disorders, but does that change the fact that possibly over 200 people died because of him? That he's so far gone that he'll never be fixed? What's interesting is that he was never sentenced the death penalty and eventually died in prison anyway, presumably from natural causes (though possibility that it was a mob member who was also in prison has never been eliminated)
This is kind of a hard issue for me. I do think there are people who do need an absolute removal from society, which can be done through life in prison. But you can't help but get a sick feeling from people like Kuklinski. A feeling like they need to pay for what they did, that who cares about their life in the face of the 200 they took away, that they need to be completely erased from the face of the earth. I admit that this is purely emotional, but it's the only thing that conflicts this issue for me. Rationally, I'm against the death penalty.
Maybe there could be some sort of compromise. Start them on a life sentence, and if it gets to the point that they no longer have the will to live in prison, offer them the death penalty.
On account on the second, perhaps the guilty ought to be forced to endure a few restrictions. In any case, while I don't know about other countries, going to jail in the United States can put you in a better situation. In jail, you do not have to work. In jail, you are fed, clothed, and entertained with television.
American jails aren't even close to being this fun, and the more max-security it is (which is where our life-sentence inmates would definitely be), the less fun it is. Even with television, it's mostly a hell of monotony and boredom, because you're stuffed in an area with a commons area and your own little room and have to stay there until your sentence ends. A number of jails barely even let you go outside or get any physical activity. And with the ridiculous jail population of the USA, these problems are even worse.
