Hey, Politicians! Your predecessors got our prison systems in a terrible mess. We stacked up many more prisoners than other nations, and at much greater expense, with disastrous consequences. Paying more for prisons and less for education is a sick trend. Each prisoner costs us about $50,000 per year, and that cost must be multiplied by 2,300,000. You may have heard that it costs less than this to feed, clothe, house and provide medical care to prisoners, but that lower figure does not include the astronomical lost opportunity costs. Locking up that many people and not providing useful work for them means that the value of their labor is lost, too. On the average, each prisoner is able to make about $25,000 per year if put in a regular job. Add this to the direct outlays $25,000 per year, and the cost equals $50,000 per year. This does not count the increased welfare costs outside prison, the social costs of breaking up families and marriag...
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