Good post. I have never seen strong evidence that the death penalty has a meaningful deterrent effect but I'd be curious to see links one way or the other.

I lean towards prison abolition, but it's an idealistic notion, not a pragmatic one. I suppose we could start by getting rid of prisons for non-violent crimes and properly funding mental hospitals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_abolition_movement I can't see that happening when we can't even decriminalize marijuana.