Research on the economic drivers and consequences of mass incarceration
Below, we’ve curated virtually all of the research about the various economic factors of incarceration.
How much does the criminal justice system cost, and who pays for it? How well-funded are prisons and jails? What are the economic impacts and origins of mass incarceration? Do certain programs in prison affect people’s economic well-being after release? See the reports below to explore these questions and more. You can also see related research on our Poverty and Debt page.
Fair Chance Act failures? Employers' hiring of people with criminal records Sharon S. Oselin, Justine G. M. Ross, Qingfang Wang, & Wei Kang, November, 2024“Only 25.8% of hiring decision makers indicated they would have seriously considered someone with a criminal conviction for the last entry-level/non-degreed position they hired for though there is variation based on the type of crime.”
Medical Debt Behind Bars: The Punishing Impact of Copays, Fees, and Other Carceral Medical Debt National Consumer Law Center, September, 2024“Many people who are incarcerated do not have the income to pay even the most modest medical fee without significant help from their already-burdened and often low-income families.”
Data Privacy in Carceral Settings: The Digital Panopticon Returns to Its Roots Stephen Raher, May, 2024“Communication technologies [are now] widespread [in jails and prisons] & the companies providing these services are embarking on a new line of business: monetizing the involuntary collection, sharing, and analysis of data collected from captive consumers.”
Shadow Budgets: How mass incarceration steals from the poor to give to the prison Prison Policy Initiative, May, 2024“Most [welfare fund] policies are so vague that prison officials enjoy wide discretion to spend incarcerated peoples' money as they please -- sometimes spending it on luxury perks for staff.”
Workers Doing Time Must Be Protected by Job Safety LawsNational Employment Law Project, April, 2024“Excessive carceral costs and fees coupled with strong incentives for early release push incarcerated workers into accepting dangerous assignments.”
One in Five: How Mass Incarceration Deepens Inequality and Harms Public Safety (Part 4) Sentencing Project, January, 2024“Mass incarceration's hold on vast public resources, its imposition of financial burdens, and the obstacles erected for people with criminal records further erode economic and social buffers against crime.”
Overcharged: Coerced labor, low pay, and high costs in Washington's prisonsColumbia Legal Services, January, 2024“People in Washington prisons are paid as little as 6% of the state minimum wage...Their wages are then deducted from between 5 to 100% for mandatory fees such as "the cost of incarceration," while basic goods...can cost a day's worth of earnings.”
A Cost-Benefit Analysis: The Impact of Ending Slavery and Involuntary Servitude as Criminal Punishment and Paying Incarcerated Workers Fair Wages Edgeworth Economics and Worth Rises, January, 2024“Once the adjustments to paying incarcerated workers are achieved the total fiscal benefits to incarcerated workers, their families and children, crime victims, and society at large is between $26.8 billion and $34.7 billion per year.”
The Criminalization of Poverty in Kentucky: How Economic Crises and Flawed Reforms Fueled an Incarceration Boom Vera Institute of Justice, August, 2023“By turning to criminal legal fines and fees to fund court and jail operations, jurisdictions across Kentucky create a vicious cycle that traps people in poverty and makes it more difficult for people to lead stable lives after incarceration.”
Understanding the Landscape of Fines, Restitution, and Fees for Criminal Convictions in MinnesotaRobina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, August, 2023“In 2023, the [Minnesota] DOC reported that of 10,413 correctional fees imposed, it waived 338, for a waiver rate of 3.8%. However, of these, nearly 40% were waived due to the death of the person upon which the fees were originally imposed.”
The Cost of Doing Business: Why Criminal Justice Reform Is the Right Investment to Strengthen Mississippi's Economy and Workforce FWD.us, June, 2023“Each year, Mississippi's economy -- especially its small businesses -- lose an estimated $2.7 billion in earnings due to criminal convictions.”
Prioritization of carceral spending in U.S. cities: Development of the Carceral Resource Index (CRI) and the role of race and income inequality Britt Skaathun et al, December, 2022“To our knowledge, this is the first study to consider the joint interaction of race and class on the prioritization of carceral systems over health and social support systems.”
Unsustainable: Alabama's Increasing Trend of Keeping the Elderly Behind Bars Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, November, 2022“The average age of the Alabama prison population has a positive linear relationship (r=.88) with [medical spending.]”
Electronic Monitoring Fees: A 50-State Survey of the Costs Assessed to People on E-Supervision Fines and Fees Justice Center, September, 2022“Broad language in state statutes and rules often gives local governments considerable latitude in determining how much to charge. From a limited review of 31 local jurisdictions with EM programs, fees ranged from less than $1 a day up to $40 per day”
Revenue Over Public SafetyBrennan Center for Justice, July, 2022“Officials seeking to alleviate prison and jail overcrowding by renting space from other jurisdictions have created a market in incarcerated people...federal government has exacerbated demand for bed space, such as through immigration enforcement.”
Captive Labor: Exploitation of Incarcerated Workers ACLU and the University of Chicago Law School Global Human Rights Clinic, June, 2022“Our research found that the average minimum hourly wage paid to workers for non-industry jobs is 13 cents, and the average maximum hourly wage is 52 cents.”
Justice-Involved Individuals and the Consumer Financial MarketplaceConsumer Financial Protection Bureau, January, 2022“People exiting jail or prison face frequent fees for the prepaid cards they often have no choice but to receive...even market-rate fees on a prepaid product would burden this vulnerable class of people relative to receiving cash or checks.”
Methods of Calculating the Marginal Cost of Incarceration: A Scoping Review Stuart John Wilson and Jocelyne Lemoine, December, 2021“There is a lack of, and need for, peer-reviewed literature on methods for calculating the marginal cost of incarceration, and marginal cost estimates of incarceration, to assist program evaluation, policy, and cost forecasting.”
The predatory dimensions of criminal justiceJoshua Page and Joe Soss, October, 2021“Consistent with developments that financialized the broader political economy, predatory criminal justice practices pivoted toward tools that charge prices, create debts, and pursue collections.”
The Golden Key: How State-Local Financial Incentives to Lock Up Kentuckians Are Perpetuating Mass Incarceration Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, October, 2021“Some county jails rely on the economies of scale created by overcrowding including the extra revenue that comes from holding people in state and federal custody and from charging fees to those who are incarcerated.”
Blood from a stone: How New York prisons force people to pay for their own incarceration Tommaso Bardelli, Zach Gillespie and Thuy Linh Tu, October, 2021“A study by members of the New York University Prison Education Program Research Collective gives important first-hand accounts of the damage done when prisons shift financial costs to incarcerated people.”
Debt to Society: The Role of Fines & Fees Reform in Dismantling the Carceral State Wesley Dozier and Daniel Kiel, September, 2021“Between 2005 and 2017, the Tennessee General Assembly passed forty-six bills that increased the amount of debt owed by individuals who make contact with the criminal legal system.”
Bloody Lucre: Carceral Labor and Prison Profit Laura I. Appleman, August, 2021“The economic exploitation that occurs with most inmate labor is doubly troubling in times of emergency or disaster, where often prisoners' health, safety, and even life is risked to ensure cost-savings on the part of governments or private industry.”
The People's Plan for Prison ClosureCalifornians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), April, 2021“Accomplishing our goal of closing ten prisons in five years will be hard. It will require political courage. But history is watching us...”
Paid Your Debt to Society? Court-related Financial Obligations and Community Supervision during the First Year after Release from Prison Paywall :(Nathan W. Link, February, 2021“One's status as being under correctional supervision at release from prison leads to increased debt, which in turn increases the chance of remaining under supervision during the first year out.”
The Business Case for Criminal Justice Reform: Second Chance HiringU.S. Chamber of Commerce, January, 2021“At the national level, economists estimate that the Gross Domestic Product (G.D.P.) is reduced between $78 billion and $87 billion due to excluding formerly incarcerated job seekers from the workforce.”
Punishing Relations: How WA DOC's Collateral Damage and Hidden Costs Imprison Families Washington Corrections Watch, January, 2021“The financial and emotional burdens of incarceration are primarily borne by female family members, most especially in communities of color.”
Prisons and Penny-Pinching: Finding Budget Savings in the Time of COVID-19 Texas Public Policy Coalition, January, 2021“Even a small percentage reduction in the number of annual revocations can potentially yield millions in annual cost savings.”
Proliferation of Punishment: The Centrality of Legal Fines and Fees in the Landscape of Contemporary Penology Paywall :(Ilya Slavinski and Becky Pettit, January, 2021“Enforcement of LFOs varies geographically and is related to conservative politics and racial threat.”
Spend Your Values, Cut Your Losses 2021 Divestment Portfolio: Smart and Safe Justice System Solutions That Put Communities First Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, November, 2020“Texas spends the most in the nation on prisons and jails; over the past three decades, it has grown 5x faster than the state's rate of spending on elementary and secondary education.”
The Broad Scope and Variation of Monetary Sanctions: Evidence From Eight States Sarah Shannon, Beth M. Huebner, Alexes Harris, et al., June, 2020(Key trends include: the lack of transparent processes in implementing this form of punishment, the wide variation in practices and policies across jurisdictions, and the ways that noncompliance deepens legal entanglements and collateral consequences.)
Local Labor Market Inequality in the Age of Mass IncarcerationLuke Petach and Anita Alves Pena, 2020“While income inequality is associated with higher rates of incarceration for all race and ethnicity groups (although not always in statistically significant fashion), the effect is largest for non-white, nonHispanic individuals.”
Paying for Jail: How County Jails Extract Wealth from New York Communities Worth Rises and Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, December, 2019“We estimate that in 2017 the 57 counties outside of New York City extracted over $25.1 million for phone calls, $14.1 million for commissary, and $0.2 million for disciplinary tickets.”
The Company Store and the Literally Captive Market: Consumer Law in Prisons and Jails Stephen Raher, November, 2019“The growth of public expense associated with mass incarceration has led many carceral systems to push certain costs onto the people who are under correctional supervision.”
The Steep Costs of Criminal Justice Fees and Fines: A Fiscal Analysis of Three States and Ten Counties Brennan Center for Justice, November, 2019(Criminal fines and fees burden the members of society who are least able to pay, and the costs of collection are many times greater than those of general taxation, effectively canceling out much of the revenue.)
The Price of Taxation by Citation: Case Studies of Three Georgia Cities that Rely Heavily on Fines and Fees Institute for Justice, October, 2019“Our findings also suggest taxation by citation is shortsighted. Cities may gain revenue, but they may also pay a price for it in the form of lower community trust and cooperation.”
Fees, Fines and Fairness: How Monetary Charges Drive Inequity in New York City's Criminal Justice System New York City Comptroller, September, 2019“100,000 civil judgments were issued in just one year for failure to pay criminal court debts in New York City, all but criminalizing poverty.”
The Hidden Costs of Florida's Criminal Justice FeesRebekah Diller, Brennan Center for Justice, August, 2019“Since 1996, Florida added more than 20 new categories of financial obligations for criminal defendants and, at the same time, eliminated most exemptions for those who cannot pay”
Plus a Life Sentence? Incarceration's Effects on Expected Lifetime Wage Growth Theodore S. Corwin III and Daniel K. N. Johnson, June, 2019“Our work indicates a dampening effect of incarceration on wage growth in the lifetime.”
Level of Criminal Justice Contact and Early Adult Wage InequalityRobert Apel and Kathleen Powell, February, 2019“On the contrary, formerly incarcerated blacks earn significantly lower wages than their similar-age siblings with no history of criminal justice contact (and even their similar-age siblings who have an arrest record).”
No Credit For Time Served? Incarceration and Credit-Driven Crime Cycles Abhay Aneja and Carlos Avenancio-Leon, February, 2019“Incarceration significantly reduces access to credit, and that in turn leads to substantial increases in recidivism, creating a perverse feedback loop.”
Money for Communities, Not Cages: The Case for Reducing the Cook County Sheriff's Jail Budget Chicago Community Bond Fund, October, 2018“By re-allocating money from reactionary corrections programs to proactive and preventative community services, Cook County can begin to effectively invest in the communities and people previously neglected and criminalized.”
Socioeconomic Barriers to Child Contact with Incarcerated ParentsPaywall :(Batya Y. Rubenstein, Elisa L. Toman, Joshua C. Cochran, August, 2018“Analyses suggest that lower income parents are less likely to be visited by their children. We also find that economic disadvantage may condition impacts of other practical barriers, such as distance from home.”
Criminal Justice Administrative Fees: High Pain for People, Low Gain for Government The Financial Justice Project of San Francisco, May, 2018“Over the last six years, more than 265,000 fines and fees have been charged to local individuals, totaling almost $57 million.”
The Prison Industrial Complex Mapping Private Sector Players Urban Justice Center, April, 2018“This report exposes over 3,100 corporations that profit from the devastating mass incarceration of our nation’s marginalized communities.”
The Evolving Landscape of Crime and IncarcerationGreenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, April, 2018(This report shows that a 67 percent majority agrees that "building more jails and prisons to keep more people in jail does not reduce crime," including 61 percent of rural Americans.)
Work and opportunity before and after incarcerationBrookings Institution, March, 2018“The combination of high rates of incarceration and low employment rates among exprisoners implies that roughly one third of all not-working 30-year-old men are either in prison, in jail, or are unemployed former prisoners.”
Court Fines and Fees: Criminalizing Poverty in North Carolina North Carolina Poverty Research Fund, January, 2018(In recent decades, the North Carolina General Assembly has levied a costly array of fees on low income Tar Heels and their families, creating massive hardships for those caught in webs of criminal justice debt.)
Driving on Empty: Payment Plan Reforms Don't Fix Virginia's Court Debt Crisis Legal Aid Justice Center, January, 2018(After Virginia implemented significant changes to rules governing payment plans for court debt, roughly one in six licensed drivers in Virginia still has their driver's license suspended, due at least in part to unpaid court debt.)
Tracking the impact of the prison system on the economyPrison Policy Initiative, December, 2017“In 2012 -- the most recent data available -- the more than 2.4 million people who work for the justice system (in police, corrections and judicial services) at all levels of government constituted 1.6% of the civilian workforce.”
Driven by Dollars: A State-By-State Analysis of Driver's License Suspension Laws for Failure to Pay Court Debt Legal Aid Justice Center, September, 2017“43 states (and D.C.) suspend driver's licenses because of unpaid court debt.”
Criminal Background Checks and Access to Jobs: A Case Study of Washington, DC Urban Institute, June, 2017“Examining local regulations and DC’s labor market reveals that justice-involved people—whether formerly incarcerated or not—face significant challenges finding work in in the city.”
Getting Tough on Spending: An Examination of Correctional Expenditure in Massachusetts MassINC and the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, May, 2017“DOC [Department of Corrections] and county facilities combined, the state budget allocation per inmate rose 34 percent between FY 2011 and FY 2016. Over this period, education aid per student increased by only 11 percent.”
The Price of Prisons: Examining State Spending Trends, 2010-2015 Vera Institute of Justice, May, 2017“Since 2010, 23 states have reduced the size of their prison populations. Vera’s research found that 13 of these states have saved considerably in taxpayer money — $1.6 billion — at the same time.”
Prisons as Panacea or Pariah? The Countervailing Consequences of the Prison Boom on the Political Economy of Rural Towns John M. Eason, January, 2017“Thus, neither entirely pariah nor panacea, the prison functions as a state-sponsored public works program for disadvantaged rural communities but also supports perverse economic incentives for prison proliferation.”
Past Due: Examining the Costs and Consequences of Charging for Justice in New Orleans Vera Institute of Justice, January, 2017“Past Due, and its accompanying technical report, reveal the costs and other consequences of a system that tries to extract money from low-income people and then jails them when they can't pay.”
Following the Money of Mass IncarcerationPrison Policy Initiative, January, 2017“In this first-of-its-kind report, we find that the system of mass incarceration costs the government and families of justice-involved people at least $182 billion every year.”
The Economic Burden of Incarceration in the U.S.Institute for Advancing Justice Research and Innovation, October, 2016“This study estimates the annual economic burden of incarceration in the United States [by including] important social costs...an aggregate burden of one trillion dollars.”
A National Picture of Prison Downsizing StrategiesThe RAND Corporation, February, 2016“After decades of unprecedented correctional expenditures and prison population growth, many states faced fiscal pressures on their corrections budgets as the country entered a deep recession in 2008.”
You've Got Mail: The promise of cyber communication in prisons and the need for regulation Prison Policy Initiative, January, 2016(There are many benefits to electronic messaging in correctional facilities, but our analysis finds that the technology is primed to be just another opportunity for for-profit companies to exploit families and subvert regulations of phone calls.)
Prison Price Tag: The High Cost of Wisconsin's Corrections Policies Wisconsin Budget Project, November, 2015“Wisconsin state and local governments spend about $1.5 billion on corrections each year, significantly more than the national average given the size of our state.”
Corrections Spending Through the State Budget Since 2007-08: Still High Despite Recent Reforms California Budget & Policy Center, November, 2015(While total corrections spending as a share of the state budget is down slightly since 2007-08, spending for adults under state jurisdiction remains stubbornly high.)
Debtors' Prisons in New HampshireACLU of New Hampshire, September, 2015(In 2013 New Hampshire judges jailed people who were unable to pay fines and without conducting a meaningful ability-to-pay hearing in an estimated 148 cases.)
Who Pays? The True Cost of Incarceration on Families Ella Baker Center for Human Rights; Forward Together; Research Action Design, September, 2015“Forty-eight percent of families in our survey overall were unable to afford the costs associated with a conviction, while among poor families (making less than $15,000 per year), 58% were unable to afford these costs.”
Corrections Infrastructure Spending in CaliforniaPublic Policy Institute of California, March, 2015“At the end of 2005, CDCR operated 33 prisons with a statewide design capacity of more than 80,000 beds.”
Justice Expenditure And Employment Extracts, 2012Bureau of Justice Statistics, February, 2015(This series includes estimates of government expenditures and employment at the national, federal, state, and local levels for the following justice categories: police protection, all judicial and legal functions, and corrections.)
Department of Corrections Colorado Correctional Industries Performance Audit Colorado Office of the State Auditor, January, 2015“Although statute requires CCI to operate in a profit-oriented manner, CCI's industries operations earned profit margins on average of less than 1 percent from Fiscal Years 2009 through 2014.”
Public Research Universities: Changes in State Funding American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 2015“In general, state spending on corrections has grown much faster than education spending over the last three decades. In eleven states, corrections has now surpassed higher education as a percentage of funding.”
To Serve and Collect: The Fiscal and Racial Determinants of Law Enforcement Michael D. Makowsky, Thomas Stratmann, and Alexander T. Tabarrok, 2015(This study finds increases in arrest rates of African-Americans and Hispanics for drugs, DUI violations, and prostitution where local governments are running deficits, but only in states that allow police departments to retain seizure revenues.)
Cost-Benefit Analysis and Justice Policy ToolkitVera Institute of Justice, December, 2014“In recent years, policymakers and the public have been asking whether justice policies pass the “cost-benefit test.” Two questions drive this discussion: First, what works to reduce crime? And second, are those programs and policies worth the cost?”
Defunding State PrisonsSanta Clara University School of Law, December, 2014“States would, instead, reallocate money spent on prisons to localities to use as they see fit--on enforcement, treatment, or even per-capita prison usage.”
Changing Priorities: State Criminal Justice Reforms and Investments in Education Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, October, 2014“Corrections spending is now the third-largest category of spending in most states, behind education and health care.”
Justice Expenditure And Employment Extracts, 2011 - PreliminaryBureau of Justice Statistics, July, 2014“This series includes national, federal, and state-level estimates of government expenditures and employment for the following justice categories: police protection, all judicial and legal functions (including prosecution, courts, and public defense), and”
Justice Expenditure And Employment Extracts, 2010 Final Bureau of Justice Statistics, July, 2014“This series includes national, federal, and state-level estimates of government expenditures and employment for the following justice categories: police protection, all judicial and legal functions... and corrections.”
Justice Expenditure And Employment Extracts, 2009 Final Bureau of Justice Statistics, July, 2014“This series includes national, federal, and state-level estimates of government expenditures and employment for the following justice categories: police protection, all judicial and legal functions... and corrections.”
Indigent Defense Services In The United States, FY 2008-2012 - UpdatedBureau of Justice Statistics, July, 2014“It provides both direct and intergovernmental indigent defense expenditures of state governments for fiscal years 2008 through 2012, and presents some local government expenditures aggregated at the state level.”
A New Approach to Reducing Incarceration While Maintaining Low Rates of Crime The Hamilton Project, May, 2014“What alternative policy options could we pursue in conjunction with scaling back incarceration rates that would reduce the social costs of incarceration while controlling crime?”
Follow the Money: How California Counties Are Spending Their Public Safety Realignment Funds Stanford Criminal Justice Center, January, 2014“Sheriff and Law Enforcement spending is generally a product of local needs (crime conditions and dedication to law enforcement) and preference for punishment. Programs and Services spending fundamentally revolves around electoral confidence in the Sheriff”
Justice Reinvestment Initiative State Assessment ReportUrban Institute, January, 2014“Since enacting JRI, all eight states - Arkansas, Hawaii, Louisiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Carolina - have experienced reductions in their prison populations since the start of JRI.”
The Burden of Criminal Justice Debt in Alabama: 2014 Participant Self-Report Survey UAB TASC Jefferson County's Community Corrections Program, 2014“The purpose of this study was to evaluate the success of this approach and the impact of these policies in Alabama. With the general knowledge that increased court costs have not produced projected revenue, we sought to understand why.”
Reforming Funding to Reduce Mass IncarcerationBrennan Center for Justice, November, 2013“More than 68 million Americans - a quarter of the nation's population - have criminal records.”
Funding Public Safety RealignmentPublic Policy Institute of California, November, 2013“Achieving lower rates of recidivism is a key goal for the state because the share of individuals returning to crime has a direct bearing on the state's ability to reduce prison crowding.”
The Impact of Federal Budget Cuts from FY10-FY13 on State and Local Public Safety Vera Institute of Justice, November, 2013“Overall funding for Department of Justice grant programs has dropped by 43 percent since FY10.”
Managing Prison Health Care SpendingThe Pew Charitable Trust, The MacArthur Foundation, October, 2013“Pew found that prison health care spending in these 44 states totaled $6.5 billion in 2008, out of $36.8 billion in overall institutional correctional expenditures.”
Criminals and Campaign Cash The Impact of Judicial Campaign Spending on Criminal Defendants Center for American Progress, October, 2013“As Illinois voters were bombarded with attack ads featuring violent criminals, the high court ruled in favor of the prosecution in 69 percent of its criminal cases—an 18 percent increase over the previous year.”
State Spending for Corrections: Long-Term Trends and Recent Criminal Justice Policy Reforms National Association of State Budget Officers, September, 2013“State spending for corrections reached $52.4 billion in fiscal 2012 and has been higher than 7.0 percent of overall general fund expenditures every year since fiscal 2008.”
Please Deposit All of Your Money: Kickbacks, Rates, and Hidden Fees in the Jail Phone Industry Prison Policy Initiative, May, 2013“This report is the first to address in depth the many fees prison phone customers must pay. Fees have an enormous impact on prison phone bills, making up 38% of the $1 billion annual price of calling home.”
Wisconsin's Mass Incarceration of African American Males: Workforce Challenges for 2013 Employment and Training Institute, University of Wisconsin, April, 2013“From 1990 to 2011 Wisconsin incarcerated 26,222 African American men from Milwaukee County in state correctional facilities. As of January 2012, 20,591 men had been released back into the community and 5,631 were still imprisoned.”
Crime, Cost, and Consequences: Is it Time to Get Smart on Crime? MassInc, Community Resources for Justice, March, 2013“If Massachusetts continues on the current course, the analysis contained in this report suggests the state will spend more than $2 billion over the next decade on corrections policies that produce limited public safety benefit.”
State Expenditure Report Examining Fiscal 2011-2013 State Spending National Association of State Budget Officers, 2013“Total corrections spending increased by 3.3 percent in fiscal 2012 and is estimated to have declined slightly by 0.3 percent in fiscal 2013.”
State Corrections Expenditures, FY 1982-2010Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2012“Between 1982 and 2001, total state corrections expenditures increased each year, rising from $15.0 billion to $53.5 billion in real dollars.”
At America's Expense The Mass Incarceration of the Elderly ACLU, June, 2012“Based on statistical analyses of available data, this report estimates that releasing an aging prisoner will save states, on average, $66,294 per year per prisoner, including healthcare, other public benefits, parole, and any housing costs or tax revenue.”
Justice Reinvestment in Pennsylvania A Comprehensive Public Safety Plan for the Commonwealth Council of State Governments Justice Center, May, 2012(Comprehensive public safety plan that reduces costly inefficiencies in PA's criminal justice system and reinvests savings in law enforcement strategies that deter crime, local diversion efforts that reduce recidivism & services for crime victims.)
A Juvenile Justice Reprieve: California's 2012 Mid-Year Budget Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, May, 2012“Counties cannot continue to oppose both budget triggers which attempt to more realistically balance DJF fees, and juvenile justice realignment, which transitions away from an archaic and dysfunctional state system to build on county successes.”
Reallocating Justice Resources A Review of 2011 State Sentencing Trends Vera Institute of Justice, March, 2012“Early in the current recession, many states focused only on achieving quick cost savings. Now state lawmakers are considering multiple, related policy changes that will have long-term fiscal impacts.”
Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program, 2011Bureau of Justice Statistics, March, 2012“The total 2011 allocation for the JAG funding was approximately $368.3 million, of which $359.4 million went to states and $8.9 million to territories and the District of Columbia.”
Improving Budget Analysis of State Criminal Justice Reforms A Strategy for Better Outcomes and Saving Money Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the American Civil Liberties UNion, January, 2012“States did not write fiscal notes for about 40 percent of the bills. Two states, Delaware and Hawaii, never write fiscal notes for criminal justice bills. Others, including South Dakota and Vermont, rarely write them.”
The Price of Prisons What Incarceration Costs Taxpayers Vera Institute of Justice, January, 2012“[T]he total taxpayer cost of prisons in the 40 states that participated in this study was 13.9 percent higher than the cost reflected in those states' combined corrections budgets. The total price to taxpayers was $38.8 billion...”
State Expenditure Report Examining Fiscal 2010-2012 State Spending National Association of State Budget Officers, 2012“Corrections accounted for 3.1 percent of total state expenditures in fiscal 2011 and 7.5 percent of general funds.”
Correctional Spending Trends Budget Information Report Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office, September, 2011“The Department of Correction's budget is one of the largest commitments of resources in the state budget representing roughly 9.1% of the combined General Fund and Lottery Funds in the 2011-13 legislatively adopted budget.”
Crisis in the Courts Defining the Problem American Bar Association, August, 2011“[T]he Legal Services Corportation Budget for FY2011 was reduced an additional 3.8% half way through that budget cycle, even as the number of Americans eligible for civil legal aid was pushed by the Recession to an all-time high of 57 Million.”
A Billion Dollars and Growing: Why Prison Bonding is Tougher on Florida's Taxpayers Than on Crime Collins Center for Public Policy; Florida TaxWatch, April, 2011“Little known and not well understood by taxpayers, this funding approach has saddled future generations of Floridians with over a billion dollars in debt without appreciably increasing public safety.”
FY 2010 Operating Per Capita Cost Report Cost Identification and Comparison of State and Private Contract Beds ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, April, 2011“An inmate health care cost factor is identified and deducted due to the limitations imposed by the private contractors [...][because] unlike the private contractors, the ADC is required to provide medical and mental health services to inmates [...].”
Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program 2010Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2011“The five states eligible to receive the largest total state allocation included California ($51.1 million), Texas ($34.0 million), Florida ($30.9 million), New York ($24.8 million), and Illinois ($18.9 million).”
Smart on Crime Recommendations for the Administration and Congress The Smart on Crime Coalition, February, 2011“Smart on Crime seeks to provide federal policymakers in both Congress and the Administration a comprehensive, systematic analysis of the current challenges facing state and federal criminal justice systems and recommendations to address those challenges.”
Fact Sheet on President Obama's FY2012 Budget Doing the Same Thing and Expecting Different Results Justice Policy Institute, February, 2011“[The] continued funding pattern will likely result in increased costs to states for incarceration that will outweigh the increased federal revenue for local law enforcement, with marginal public safety benefits.”
Justice Assistance Grant Program, 2012Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2011“The five largest total state allocations included California ($32.9 million), Texas ($22.7 million), Florida ($19.5 million), New York ($16.0 million), and Illinois ($12.0 million).”
Ex-offenders and the Labor MarketCenter for Economic and Policy Research, November, 2010“Given our estimates of the number of ex-offenders and the best outside estimates of the associated reduction in employment suffered by ex-offenders, our calculations suggest that in 2008 the U.S. economy lost the equivalent of 1.5 to 1.7 million workers.”
In For a Penny The Rise of America's New Debtors' Prisons American Civil Liberties Union, October, 2010“Incarcerating indigent defendants unable to pay their legal financial obligations often ends up costing much more than states and counties can ever hope to recover.”
The Hidden Costs of Criminal Justice DebtBrennan Center for Justice, October, 2010“Although 'debtors' prison' is illegal in all states, reincarcerating individuals for failure to pay debt is, in fact, common in some -- and in all states new paths back to prison are emerging for those who owe criminal justice debt.”
The Continuing Fiscal Crisis in Corrections Setting a New Course Vera Institute of Justice, October, 2010“Officials are recognizing—in large part due to 30 years of trial and error, backed up by data—that it is possible to reduce corrections spending while also enhancing public safety.”
The Impact of Mass Incarceration on PovertyCrime and Delinquency, February, 2009“From an empirical standpoint, the results from the current analysis are quite clear; mass incarceration has played a major role in increasing poverty rates.”
Profiting from the Poor A Report on Predatory Probation Companies in Georgia Southern Center for Human Rights, July, 2008“The privatization of misdemeanor probation has placed unprecedented law enforcement authority in the hands of for-profit companies that act essentially as collection agencies.”
Impacts of Jail Expansion in New York State: A Hidden Burden Center for Constitutional Rights, May, 2007“The growth in the number of people held in jail has not been caused by an increase in crime, as index crime reports decreased by 30 percent in the last decade in upstate and suburban New York overall.”(Construction of new prisons in New York poses a financial, employment and environmental burden on communities.)
Foreign Nationals in Michigan Prisons an examination of the costs Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending, April, 2006“The Governor should appoint an independent panel to review all alien prisoners, making recommendations for commutation and culling those who are eligible for removal before serving their entire sentence. The Governor should then request their removal.”
Offender Work Report, 2004Washington State Jail Industries Board, October, 2005“Work within correctional facilities totaled 2,674,877 labor hours in 2004. Jails reported 113,560 labor hours performed on behalf of not-for-profit community organizations...”
Cost-Saving or Cost-Shifting: The Fiscal Impact of Prison Privatization in Arizona Private Corrections Institute, February, 2005
Protecting the Future: Moderating West Virginia's Budget Crisis Grassroots Leadership, February, 2005
Locked Up: Corrections Policy in New Hampshire Paper 2: Options for Reducing the Prison Population and the Cost of Incarceration New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, February, 2004
Dollars, Sentences and Long-Term Public Safety Managing a Fiscal Crisis with a Goal of Long-Term Public Safety Middle Ground Prison Reform, September, 2003(Arizona sentencing policy recommendations)
Ohio's Priorities?Prison Policy Initiative, September, 2003(charts of racial disparities in OH incarceration, and how much money is spent on education vs. prisons)
Upstate New York's Population Plateau: The Third-Slowest Growing 'State' Brookings Institution, August, 2003“Nearly 30 percent of new residents in Upstate New York in the 1990s were prisoners.”
Dollars and Sentences: Legislators' Views on Prisons, Punishment, and the Budget Crisis Vera Institute of Justice, July, 2003
Borrowing Against the Future: The Impact of Prison Expansion on Arizona Families, Schools and Communities Grassroots Leadership and Arizona Advocacy Network, April, 2003
Community Corrections in Ohio: Cost Savings and Program Effectiveness Policy Matters Ohio and Justice Policy Institute, December, 2002(Ohio has realized considerable cost savings by using community corrections programs instead of prison)
Seeking Balance: Reducing Prison Costs in Times of Austerity Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, December, 2002
Cutting Correctly: New Prison Policies for Times of Fiscal Crisis Justice Policy Institute, February, 2002
Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 1999Bureau of Justice Statistics, February, 2002“The extracts present public expenditure and employment data pertaining to justice activities in the United States, including police, judicial and legal services, and correctional activities.”
Prison Expansion in a Time of Austerity: An Analysis of the Governor's Proposed New Prison in Delano Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, January, 2002(California)
State Prison Expenditures, 1996Bureau of Justice Statistics, August, 1999“presents comparative data on the cost of operating the Nation's State prisons”
Prisons as a Growth Industry in Rural America: An Exploratory Discussion of the Effects on Young African American Men in the Inner Cities Tracy Huling, consultant to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, April, 1999
Cost Savings in State Corrections: Medical treatment in the community for very ill offenders. Washington State Sentencing Guidelines Commission, December, 1998(it's an MSWord file)
Factories with Fences: The History of Federal Prison Industries Bureau of Prisons, May, 1996
Rural Prisons: An UpdateCalvin Beale, Department of Agriculture, Rural Development Perspectives, February, 1996“nonmetro counties continued to acquire prisons at a rate dramatically out of proportion to the percentage of the Nation's population that lives in such areas.”
Federal and State Prisons: Inmate Populations, Costs, and Projection Models, 1996 General Accounting Office, 1996
Prisoner Labor: Perspectives on Paying the Federal Minimum Wage General Accounting Office, May, 1993(GAO testimony based on report is at the end of the PDF)
Justice Expenditure and Employment, 1990Bureau of Justice Statistics, September, 1992“Federal Government spending on justice increased 128% in constant dollars per capita from 1971 to 1990, more than twice as fast as the 54.5% increase among State and local governments.”
The State Expenditure ReportNational Association of State Budget Officers, July, 1987“This report provides figures for actual Fiscal Year 1985 expenditures, estimated Fiscal Year 1986 expenditures..., and appropriated Fiscal Year 1987 expenditures.”
