A WARNING FROM THE ACCOUNTANTS !
A Warning from the Accountants by John Dewar Gleissner
A widely cited Associated Press article recently reported that New York City's annual cost per inmate was $167,731 in 2012. Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent a year to run a 400-acre island in the East River that has 10 jail facilities, staff, a power plant and bakery. The city's Independent Budget Office annual figure of $167,731 ($460 per day for the 12,287 average daily New York City inmates last year) was based on $2 billion in total operating expenses for the NYC Department of Correction. They have transportation costs; 261,158 inmates had to visit court last year. The former commissioner wanted to put the jails near the courthouses, but residents don't like that idea.
Los Angeles reportedly spent $128.94 a day, or $47,063 a year, for 17,400 inmates in fiscal year 2011-12, per its sheriff's office. According to the article, 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.
In 2001, when NYC had 14,490 inmates, the article continued, the full cost of incarcerating one inmate at Rikers Island for a year was $92,500, or about $122,155 adjusted for today's dollars — that means the city spent $45,576 more in 2012 than it did 11 years ago.
Pensions, benefits, longer prison stays, labor unions and other factors were cited as reasons for the increased expenses. One title or by-line of the article was, "It's Cheaper to Go to Harvard For Four Years Than to Be Imprisoned in NYC For One" That's a powerful way to express the trend of correctional expenses crowding out educational budgets all over the country.
Jails are more expensive than prisons, for some of the same reasons hotels are more expensive than long-term renting of homes or home ownership.
Perhaps these astounding figures will encourage the public to think more about community sentences, including traditional judicial corporal punishment. Every time someone is incarcerated, whether in jail or prison, the taxpayer is also punished with the huge expenses of providing all sustenance for the incarcerated. In fact, our entire U.S. incarcerated population is the largest and most expensive group of full-ride welfare recipients in the world ... and maybe in world history. We are supposed to be the Land of the Free, but instead big government has created a massively expensive and inefficient Leviathan.
A widely cited Associated Press article recently reported that New York City's annual cost per inmate was $167,731 in 2012. Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent a year to run a 400-acre island in the East River that has 10 jail facilities, staff, a power plant and bakery. The city's Independent Budget Office annual figure of $167,731 ($460 per day for the 12,287 average daily New York City inmates last year) was based on $2 billion in total operating expenses for the NYC Department of Correction. They have transportation costs; 261,158 inmates had to visit court last year. The former commissioner wanted to put the jails near the courthouses, but residents don't like that idea.
Los Angeles reportedly spent $128.94 a day, or $47,063 a year, for 17,400 inmates in fiscal year 2011-12, per its sheriff's office. According to the article, 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.
In 2001, when NYC had 14,490 inmates, the article continued, the full cost of incarcerating one inmate at Rikers Island for a year was $92,500, or about $122,155 adjusted for today's dollars — that means the city spent $45,576 more in 2012 than it did 11 years ago.
Pensions, benefits, longer prison stays, labor unions and other factors were cited as reasons for the increased expenses. One title or by-line of the article was, "It's Cheaper to Go to Harvard For Four Years Than to Be Imprisoned in NYC For One" That's a powerful way to express the trend of correctional expenses crowding out educational budgets all over the country.
Jails are more expensive than prisons, for some of the same reasons hotels are more expensive than long-term renting of homes or home ownership.
Perhaps these astounding figures will encourage the public to think more about community sentences, including traditional judicial corporal punishment. Every time someone is incarcerated, whether in jail or prison, the taxpayer is also punished with the huge expenses of providing all sustenance for the incarcerated. In fact, our entire U.S. incarcerated population is the largest and most expensive group of full-ride welfare recipients in the world ... and maybe in world history. We are supposed to be the Land of the Free, but instead big government has created a massively expensive and inefficient Leviathan.