June 5, 2017

Per prisoner cost in California higher than per student cost of attending Harvard

LA Times - The cost of imprisoning each of California’s 130,000 inmates is expected to reach a record $75,560 in the next year That’s enough to cover the annual cost of attending Harvard University and still have plenty left over for pizza and beer.

The price for each inmate has doubled since 2005, even as court orders related to overcrowding have reduced the population by about one-quarter. Salaries and benefits for prison guards and medical providers drove much of the increase.

Since 2015, California’s per-inmate costs have surged nearly $10,000, or about 13%. New York is a distant second in overall costs at about $69,000.

2 comments:

BeamMeUp said...

And the cost to house inmates on Death row is obscene. Why does California keep voting to keep the Death Penalty? They have only executed 13 men in the last 39 years, and there remain 749 inmates awaiting execution. As a mother of a murder victim, I can tell you the death penalty does not make a difference, nor does one feel better with so-called closure. The damage is permanently done and the only ‘winner’ is the prison system’s wallet.

Anonymous said...

My heart goes out to you, Mother Armstrong - my sympathies for the awful loss of your child - and thank you so much for your post - it's so important to hear your position.