Monday, November 25, 2019

The Cost of Prison

In our society, we accept that a person who has committed a crime may be sent to prison. To ensure safety, imprisonment may seem like a necessity, so there are government-run federal prisons. However, there are also private prisons which are run by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. How much does it cost to run these facilities, and what are the unseen costs?

Prisons are funded by taxes. The cost per inmate can vary between states. In New York, it costs about $60,000 to incarcerate one person. Other states like Indiana have lower costs per inmate, around $14,000. Private prisons can make the incarceration industry lucrative-- privatized prisons make up over 10% of the corrections market, turning over $7.4 billion per year. However, prisons can get free labor from the inmates, as jobs such as working in laundry, the kitchen, or sanitation are offered to inmates. Instead of having to hire outside employees to do these jobs, prisons can use inmates. There is some debate about the ethics, considering inmates work long hours and can be paid as low as 86 cents per day. Some may argue it is generous to pay them at all, while others say they should be paid higher wages. In any case, it cuts down costs for the prison.

Prisons cost the taxpayer money, but there is also a cost to those they imprison. There are visible monetary costs, such as parole fees that ex-convicts must pay after release. Life after prison can be extremely difficult for many felons. The unemployment rate of formerly incarcerated people is 27%. This is largely due to the common policy that companies have of refusing to hire someone with a felony conviction. This labor market punishment creates a counterproductive system of release and poverty. It is detrimental to the formerly incarcerated, but also employers and taxpayers. Companies are restricting their potential workforce by ignoring a large group of potential laborers. It can also be difficult to find housing after prison because of a similar policy by landlords of refusing to rent to ex-cons. A person may have to settle for lower quality or more expensive pricing because of their limited options. All the costs of being incarcerated may lead to re-imprisonment-- for example, a person may not be able to pay their parole fees because they cannot find employment, which sends them back to prison and perpetuates this horrific cycle. Recidivism can also cost the taxpayer-- in Oklahoma, every 1000 prisoners released costs the Oklahoma taxpayer an average additional annual cost of $554,010. All in all, from an economic viewpoint, it's better if released prisoners stay free.

Sources:
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/outofwork.html
https://smartasset.com/mortgage/the-economics-of-the-american-prison-system

2 comments:

  1. Although I believe that people deserve to pay for their mistakes and often times prison is a promising punishment, I don't believe that it is always the best option. A lot of money is spent in order to have prisoners be held each year, and it is not always offering a learning experience for prisoners. Take prisoners with drug charges for example. If one is addicted to drugs and gets busted, they serve time in prison for a certain amount of time. When getting out of jail, they will still be craving that drug and will have a difficult time to make money (because of felonies, drug addiction, etc.) so they will most likely commit crimes to obtain their muse. This will put them in a never ending cycle of being locked up and committing crimes on the street in order to use drugs, which is not helping the user or the tax payers dollars. If more money was spent on drug rehabilitation services, then addicts would be able to find help and wouldn't find themselves spending as much time in prison.

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  2. I 100% agree with Danielle. For prisoners who have committed crimes, prison should not just be a "consequence" but a place for learning. In Norway for example, their prisons are not cells with uncomfortable beds and riots happening like some prisons in the United States but mainly created for the idea of rehabilitation and "learning". I think that prisons in the United States should be using their tax money not to house more prisoners, but to "revamp" their design in order to make it a more learning experience rather than living in harsh conditions.

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