The death penalty is one of those extreme punishments that would create fear in the mind of any sane person. Ernest van den Haag, in his article "On Deterrence and the Death Penalty" states that "we refrain from dangerous acts due to vague, rudimentary, habitual and, above all, preconscious fears" (193). Everyone fears death, even animals. Most criminals would think twice if they knew their lives were at stake. While there is no statistical evidence that the death penalty deters crime, we must agree that most of us fear death. Suppose that a state does not have the death penalty and that life imprisonment without parole is the maximum sentence. What stops a prisoner facing life without parole from committing another murder in prison? According to Paul Van Slambrouck, "Assaults in prisons across the United States, both against fellow inmates and staff, have more than doubled over the past decade, according to statistics compiled by the Criminal Justice Institute in Middletown, Connecticut." (Christian Science Monitor, Internet). It is not possible to prevent these inmates from committing further crimes inside the prison if they are already facing the maximum sentence. Supporters of the death penalty argue that imprisonment itself could deter criminals. They believe that it is not necessary to go to the extreme measure of killing criminals to deter crime. Hugo Adam Bedau in his article "Capital Punishment and Social Defense" states that "crimes can only be deterred by making would-be criminals fear being arrested, convicted, and punished for crimes" (301). Unfortunately, the ever-increasing number of prisoners in prisons proves the opposite. Somehow, simple imprisonment is not enough for some people to prevent them from committing a crime. The number of criminals increases every year. In 1990 there were 42,733 prisoners in Alaska, while in 1999