The social conditions and institutions of today are pushing for alternatives to the death penalty more than ever because they see the death penalty as an inhumane and cruel form of punishment, a violation of life, and a form of degrading treatment. When society is advised of, and understand, the different alternatives that are offered for the death penalty, their support becomes a minimum opinion, and therefore, subject to the political defeat. The two alternatives that are sued most frequently are life imprisonment, and rehabilitation/counseling. However, there are more differences than similarities between them.

The abolition of the death penalty sends many different messages. They say that there is a way to break the cycle of violence, that society needs to stop taking life for granted, that society could be a more humane place to live, and that there are more effective ways to respond to the growth of violence. It is also a "challenge to us as people to find ways of dealing with criminals that manifest intelligence and co

Death also takes away form the chance for the criminal to be reformed through rehabilitation. Most importantly, when someone is to be executed, it is not only the prisoner that suffers. For example, as noted in Crime and its Punishment, when a person is sent to the death penalty, there are many people that are affected by it. The family and friends of the criminal are affected, but most importantly Overall society is also affected because it costs a lot of money to execute someone.

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into counseling setting, they are seen as normal people, not people with such high authority. This makes it easier for them to relate to the prisoners and helps them to get along with each other.

What would happen if a person was viewed as fully rehabilitated, and they were set free? There is a number if things that could happen. They could commit a series of crimes and be sent back to jail again. Not to mention, it would be a total waste of the staff member's work and time, and the taxpayer's money that went into this alternative.

On the other hand, the psychological way of helping a criminal is through rehabilitation. This type of alternative was "first introduced in the British penal system as group counseling in 1958," (Mays 93). Group counseling is practiced in small groups of usually eight inmates who meet regularly with staff to discuss anything they want in an "informal atmosphere," (Mays 93). The meetings usually last about an hour and a half and meet weekly. No records are kept and no topic is pushed aside, but everything said is confidential. Advisors are usually taken from their ranks of the prison psychologists who have received special training for this type of counseling. The reason these groups meet is to "help, correct in some degree, the distorted view which many inmates have of themselves and of society, and which is often responsible for the behavior that has brought them into conflict in the law," (Landau and Sebba 89).

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1360
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)