Question

Louis pojman contends that it is obvious that most people want to avoid jail and that long sentences will deter most potential criminals better than short ones—and that there are good reasons to believe that the death penalty deters better still.

Answer 1

That statement is true.
As a well known supporter for capital punishment, Louis Pojman made the argument that even if we choose to not give the capital punishment and locked the a certain criminal forever in jail, we basically take all his life potential. So economically speaking, he could make an argument that the criminal is better of dead rather than got rotten in the cell.