General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTaxpayer Cost Of Housing NYC Prisoners Last Year: $167,000 Per Inmate
Crime doesnt pay but it costs a fortune.
The city spent about $167,000 per inmate last year and had 12,287 prisoners on an average day, according to the Independent Budget Offices first-ever study of the Big Apples jails.
The numbers provide a troubling statistical portrait of the more than 12,000 people in our city jails on a typical day last year, coming at a significant fiscal cost to the city and no doubt great social cost to families and communities, said the IBOs Doug Turetsky.
He said the average annual cost per inmate covers additional expenses, such as staff salaries, fringe benefits, facility maintenance and capital expenditures.
Michael Jacobson, former president of the Vera Institute of Justice and a former city correction commissioner, says those fixed costs dont change.
He said the citys incarceration numbers are down by nearly half since the early 90s, when crack flooded city neighborhoods. In 1992, the daily inmate population peaked at 21,000.
MORE...
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/nyc_prisons_gilded_cages_EDFG3OkjCXbAfOhiMD0lAI
CincyDem
(6,283 posts)...that we pay homeless street folks even $42k a year to help them get back on their feet. Even if only 1 in 3 succeed, we'd be money ahead.
Of course then the benficiaries of the money would be the individuals, not corporate prison owners. Can't have that can we.
Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)hfojvt
(37,573 posts)but most of the cost is probably payroll.
jmowreader
(50,453 posts)And the inmates would probably do a better job.