Motley Moose – Archive

Was browsing through the NY Times and this article caught my eye.

City’s Annual Cost Per Inmate Is $168,000, Study Finds

New York City is an expensive place to live for just about everyone, including prisoners.

The city paid $167,731 to feed, house and guard each inmate last year, according to a study the Independent Budget Office released this week.

“It is troubling in both human terms and financial terms,” Doug Turetsky, the chief of staff for the budget office, said on Friday. With 12,287 inmates shuffling through city jails last year, he said, “it is a significant cost to the city.”

Mr. Turetsky added that he was not aware of any previous studies that broke down the cost per inmate in the jails, but there have been national studies.

And by nearly any measure, New York City spends more than every other state or city.

Take a look at this report:

NYC’s Jail Population: Who’s There and Why?

On an average day in fiscal year 2012,

   12,287 inmates in city jails

   57 percent are black, 33 percent Hispanic, 7 percent white, 1 percent Asian, and the rest other or unknown

   93 percent are male

The average annual cost per inmate in 2012 was $167,731

Sure, this figure is way higher than other cities, and the article goes on to explain why citing this report :

The Vera Institute of Justice released a study in 2012 that found the aggregate cost of prisons in 2010 in the 40 states that participated was $39 billion.

The annual average taxpayer cost in these states was $31,286 per inmate.

New York State was the most expensive, with an average cost of $60,000 per prison inmate.

The cost of incarcerating people in New York City’s jails is nearly three times as much.

WaPo reported:

New York’s annual costs dwarf the annual per-inmate costs in other big cities. Los Angeles spent $128.94 a day, or $47,063 a year, for 17,400 inmates in fiscal year 2011-12, its sheriff’s office said. Chicago spent $145 a day, or $52,925 a year, for 13,200 inmates in 2010, the most recent figures available from that county’s sheriff’s office. Those costs included debt-service and fringe benefits.

Curious about costs in your state, check the report from Vera :

The Price of Prisons – by state.

We are already aware of the societal devastation caused by the criminal injustice system, fueled by the war on drugs. If and when inmates are released, rarely can they find jobs.  Whole families are torn apart, and the ripple effect is generational.

So even in states which don’t spend what NYC does – wouldn’t it make more sense to spend, let’s say $20,000 per person for a majority of inmates who are non-violent offenders to go to school or get job training?

Here’s what it costs to attend my State University of New York (SUNY) campus:$17,250 a year.

Hell, just issue them a check. I’d take it – since I only earn half of that figure teaching as an adjunct professor.  

Right wing Republicans whine about spending on welfare and food stamps. They claim to be the party of “fiscal responsibility”. Someone needs to point out that the racist New Jim Crow system costs every tax payer a lot of money.

So rather than make my usual arguments about the lack of ethics and immorality of what this country is doing by incarcerating millions (2.2 million people currently in the nation’s prisons or jails) we need to talk dollars and sense.

Cross posted from Black Kos