Peter Erlinder`s article (Op-Ed, June 9) opposes the death penalty and foresees a future where mass executions of death-row inmates are likely to make our society even more brutal. I think more people would be willing to abolish the death penalty if they knew with certainty that the prisoners would serve a full life sentence without any possibility of parole, and the prisoners would not live a comfortable life at great expense to the taxpayers. We could start with the proposition that these prisoners have no right to better living conditions than those enjoyed by our military forces during combat operations. Accordingly, the federal government could set up prisons in the middle of the Great Salt Lake Desert and such places, and the states could pay a per diem charge for each prisoner accommodated. The accommodations would be tent space, combat rations and barbed wire as far as the eye could see.
If desert conditions were good enough for Desert Storm troops, the prisoners could not complain.
