# Is life without parole worse than the death penalty? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 22, 2016, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410 "2016-12-22T23:57:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HumbleThinker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5daacb/32.png) [@HumbleThinker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HumbleThinker)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/21 "2016-12-23T15:42:33Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > What’s your opinion on this? I can see some people argue that being isolated in a cell for decades with no chance of freedom is more torturous than a quick and easy death, but that’s just me. > > If I was in prison with no chance of escape I’d much rather end it quickly than spend the next 50 years slowly going insane staring at the same crack in the wall day after day. > > Personally I’d be fine with removing mandatory death sentences, but making a voluntary death sentence available to anyone sentenced to life without parole. While you can argue life without parole may be crueler, depending on the circumstances of the incarceration, it’s just a more extreme argument for why living in general is crueler than being dead. And the vast majority of people either don’t buy that argument, or they accept that life is crueler than death and live on despite it for other reasons. Humans are simply born to live, not die. Like another post said, the cruelest situation would be giving them no opportunity for meaningful activity or stimulation because then they wouldn’t be living, they’d simply be existing. That said, I’m for allowing people to exercise their right to life, and implicitly right to death, in the same way I think non-incarcerated people should be allowed to exercise it. But that’s a different conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/22 "2016-12-23T16:35:53Z")
One of my wife’s former students has been serving a life sentence for about 20 years now. We’ve visited him a couple of times. As **Qadgop** said, he seems to have adjusted to prison life, he has some privileges, and is allowed to socialize somewhat. I won’t say he’s happy in prison, but he’s shown no desire to be dead, either. What the reaction of someone who’s in solitary would be, I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/23 "2016-12-23T16:49:54Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > There isn’t very much good about being in a regular maximum security prison but it isn’t all bad either. I have a childhood friend in Louisiana that was convicted of a cold blooded murder when he was 18 and was sentenced to life without parole but he still has some perks. I am not sure how it was arranged but he works outside the prison during the week just like anyone else and then returns at night. He can see family regularly and even interact with the general public. That is certainly not the same as being a free person but it also a far cry from being locked in a barren isolation cell for months or years at a time. Your friends example illustrates exactly why life imprisonment sans parole is preferable to a death sentence. The \*without parole \*means " although in 20 years or so we might change our mind, grant you privileges, send you to a half way house, work release, remit". A death sentence means you discuss your options with God. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/24 "2016-12-23T16:51:32Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > My money is on life being parole being better than death. I’m basing this opinion on the fact that the overwhelming majority of people who _actually_ face a death sentence try to avoid it, by applying for a sentence commutation (and by this time, they probably have a good grasp of what life in prison is like). > > Plenty of people state that they’d rather be sentenced to death, but I don’t give much weight to how people (including myself) think they would react if they were facing extreme circumstances. Agree. People will typically select the tougher-sounding option on the Internet - “If given the choice between death or life imprisonment I want to be put to death and not have to languish behind bars.” But in real life it would probably be different. ---
**Author:** ![Calico\_Jack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calico_jack/32/7320_2.png) [@Calico\_Jack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calico_Jack)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/25 "2016-12-23T16:52:38Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Agree. People will typically select the tougher-sounding option on the Internet - “If given the choice between death or life imprisonment I want to be put to death and not have to languish behind bars.” But in real life it would probably be different. Not unless they feared hell or something. The fact that people have voluntarily sought out assisted suicide seems to debunk this idea. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/26 "2016-12-23T16:55:33Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > That is mostly true in general but not completely. Thanks for that correction, **Shagnasty**. If I’d read further from the wiki link I posted I wouldn’t have needed to do this :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/27 "2016-12-23T16:59:04Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > Not unless they feared hell or something. > > The fact that people have voluntarily sought out assisted suicide seems to debunk this idea. The fact that more people on death row have NOT tried to kill themselves than have seems to debunk yours. Whether one choice is worse than the other is a matter of personal opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/28 "2016-12-23T17:46:19Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > The prisoners in the only supermax in the US are there because of their violent behavior in prison not for what they did outside. There is only one Federal supermax prison in the US. There are several state supermax prisons, and many state maximum security prisons have supermax wings. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/29 "2016-12-23T18:48:30Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > There is only one Federal supermax prison in the US. There are several state supermax prisons, and many state maximum security prisons have supermax wings. Thanks, **Qadgop**. Have you yourself ever worked in a supermax or a prison with a supermax wing? One wonders what sort of psychiatric or medical problems could arise in men (or women?) subjected to such conditions ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/30 "2016-12-23T19:43:55Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > Not unless they feared hell or something. > > The fact that people have voluntarily sought out assisted suicide seems to debunk this idea. Except that the folks who would prefer imprisonment over death, and the folks who would seek out assisted suicide, may not be the same people…? ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/31 "2016-12-23T22:02:07Z")
I’ve got a pretty bad case of agoraphobia coupled with claustrophobia, so I’d rather face a death sentence than spend even a month in solitary confinement…or a few days stuck in an elevator (I avoid elevators/planes/bridges/traffic jams, etc., like the plague). Heck, I even refuse to be buried unless it’s in a [Safety Coffin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_coffin). :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/32 "2016-12-23T22:21:59Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Thanks, **Qadgop**. Have you yourself ever worked in a supermax or a prison with a supermax wing? One wonders what sort of psychiatric or medical problems could arise in men (or women?) subjected to such conditions I have not been in our state’s supermax. But I’m good friends with the doc who worked there for over a decade. It was tremendously stressful on him, dealing with patients who were constantly angry, depressed, hostile, disinhibited, and poorly socialized. Sit by yourself for 23 hours a day with nothing meaningful to do, and all your discomforts and problems (mental, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, physical) get somatized into physical pain, and all you do is complain bitterly about your horrible physical pain the entire time. And that’s a pain that no pill will cure. Eventually he moved to a medium security prison where he’s much happier, as are his patients. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/33 "2016-12-24T05:56:46Z")
Not to derail the thread, but if the idea of SuperMax is safety, then doesn’t creating mentally ill prisoners make things \*less \*safe for the staff, not the other way around? Sure, make the facility as escape-proof as possible, but there’s no reason to make the patients mentally ill through this sort of isolation and suffering, unless you just want to be punitive. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/34 "2016-12-24T08:38:29Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Agree. People will typically select the tougher-sounding option on the Internet - “If given the choice between death or life imprisonment I want to be put to death and not have to languish behind bars.” But in real life it would probably be different. Yes. It’s survival instinct, I think. The same thing that keeps people trying to survive when a hopeless disaster befalls them (that is, the kind of disaster that doesn’t necessarily kill immediately, but is pretty inevitably unsurvivable for some situations.) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/35 "2016-12-24T10:38:13Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Not to derail the thread, but if the idea of SuperMax is safety, then doesn’t creating mentally ill prisoners make things \*less \*safe for the staff, not the other way around? Sure, make the facility as escape-proof as possible, but there’s no reason to make the patients mentally ill through this sort of isolation and suffering, unless you just want to be punitive. I don’t think the _intention_ was to create crazy people, but that seems to have been an effect of it. The isolation of SuperMax isn’t just to protect the staff and public, it’s also to protect the prisoners from each other as some of them actually were pretty violent prior to being put in SuperMax (some were not). There have been people who _preferred_ such isolation - one such was [Charles Harrelson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Harrelson#Escape_attempt_and_death) Probably safe to say he was an outlier even before he was incarcerated. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/36 "2016-12-24T23:34:38Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > What’s your opinion on this? I can see some people argue that being isolated in a cell for decades with no chance of freedom is more torturous than a quick and easy death, but that’s just me. It is more torturous, but more so for the taxpayers that have to pay to keep the bad guy locked up. ---
**Author:** ![igor\_frankensteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/839c29/32.png) [@igor\_frankensteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/igor_frankensteen)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2016, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/37 "2016-12-25T01:35:05Z")
I don’t subscribe to the idea of sentences being aimed at making the criminal feel bad. I support legal actions that are designed with the communities best interests in mind. I think that life without parole is good for the community for two reasons: - it prevents the criminal from doing more damage; - it prevents the community from accidentally killing the wrong person. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/38 "2016-12-29T07:57:00Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Not to derail the thread, but if the idea of SuperMax is safety, then doesn’t creating mentally ill prisoners make things \*less \*safe for the staff, not the other way around? Sure, make the facility as escape-proof as possible, but there’s no reason to make the patients mentally ill through this sort of isolation and suffering, unless you just want to be punitive. The old maximum security jail in vic.aus made prisoners crazy. The even older Long Bay maximum security prison in nsw.aus turned prisoners into psychotic killers. Both of those were replaced with maximum security divisions that were /less/ like a supermax, but it wasn’t primarily because of the danger to staff. They were expensive to run, and the ex-prisoners could not be successfully released into the general prison population, so once they filled up, they were full. That meant that they didn’t contribute to general prison management. ---
**Author:** ![Navy\_draftee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ec9cab/32.png) [@Navy\_draftee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Navy_draftee)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/39 "2016-12-29T17:20:18Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > What’s your opinion on this? I can see some people argue that being isolated in a cell for decades with no chance of freedom is more torturous than a quick and easy death, but that’s just me. > > If I was in prison with no chance of escape I’d much rather end it quickly than spend the next 50 years slowly going insane staring at the same crack in the wall day after day. > > Personally I’d be fine with removing mandatory death sentences, but making a voluntary death sentence available to anyone sentenced to life without parole. If the death penalty was preferable, why do prisoners on death row file appeal after appeal after appeal ? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410/40 "2016-12-29T17:20:26Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > What’s your opinion on this? I can see some people argue that being isolated in a cell for decades with no chance of freedom is more torturous than a quick and easy death, but that’s just me. > > If I was in prison with no chance of escape I’d much rather end it quickly than spend the next 50 years slowly going insane staring at the same crack in the wall day after day. > > Personally I’d be fine with removing mandatory death sentences, but making a voluntary death sentence available to anyone sentenced to life without parole. I’m with you. For me, any long-term involuntary confinement in a coercive environment (with disrespectful attitude, the giving of orders, deliberate deprivations, punishment, etc) would be worse than just killing me. I like your solution and I’d expand it to anyone sentenced to +5 years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-life-without-parole-worse-than-the-death-penalty/775410.md?page=3)