Work

Sample Letter

[Date]

Mr. Timothy Lockwood

Chief, Regulation and Policy Management Branch

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

P.O. Box 942883

Sacramento, CA 94283-0001

Email: rpmb@cdcr.ca.gov

Re: Comment on Proposed Lethal Injection Regulations, Number 09-09

Proposed Amendments to Title 15, Article 7.5, Sections 3349

Dear Mr. Lockwood:

I care about the issue of the death penalty because... [Insert personal reasons such as your religious or moral beliefs, your experience as a teacher, police officer, lawyer, etc., your experience loosing a loved one to murder or execution, relationship to a prisoner on death row, etc.]

I am opposed to the death penalty because… [Visit www.deathpenalty.org/facts for ideas].

I am particularly concerned about the fiscal impact of the proposed lethal injection regulations. The CDCR has declared that the proposed regulations have no fiscal impact at all. This is incorrect. The public has a right to know exactly how much it will cost taxpayers to carry out executions using lethal injection at San Quentin prison, as proposed in the regulations. The proposed regulations require hundreds, possibly thousands of hours of staff time to implement. The CDCR must calculate and disclose the cost of this staff time. In addition, implementing the proposed regulations will result in significant demonstrations outside of San Quentin, as noted in the proposed regulations (3349.3.5(a)(1)). This will require the California Highway Patrol to assist local law enforcement with crowd control and Caltrans to assist with directing high traffic flow. The CDCR must calculate and disclose these costs to the state. Finally, the land at San Quentin has been valued at $2 billion and the Governor has proposed selling it in order to raise funds for the depleted state coffers. The proposed regulations, however, are specific to San Quentin. If the proposed regulations are approved, the state will, by the Governor’s own...