At $75,560, Housing a Prisoner in California Now Costs More Than a Year at Harvard (latimes.com)

The cost of imprisoning each of California's 130,000 inmates is expected to reach a record $75,560 in the next year, the AP reported. From the article: That's enough to cover the annual cost of attending Harvard University and still have plenty left over for pizza and beer Gov. Jerry Brown's spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1 includes a record $11.4 billion for the corrections department while also predicting that there will be 11,500 fewer inmates in four years (alternative source) because voters in November approved earlier releases for many inmates. The price for each inmate has doubled since 2005, even as court orders related to overcrowding have reduced the population by about one-quarter. Salaries and benefits for prison guards and medical providers drove much of the increase. The result is a per-inmate cost that is the nation's highest -- and $2,000 above tuition, fees, room and board, and other expenses to attend Harvard. Since 2015, California's per-inmate costs have surged nearly $10,000, or about 13%. New York is a distant second in overall costs at about $69,000.

Comments

Re:we'll pay for prison

[wisnoskij]

It is all about priorities. If you don't pay to put people in prison, you get a pile of dead people. If you don't pay to send people to university, the person just enters the job marker earlier and in general does has better economic statistics.

Re:we'll pay for prison

[__aaclcg7560]

Are they suggesting that Harvard students should be housed in California prisons?

That wouldn't be a bad idea. A 1978 documentary, Scared Straight!, had a group of juvenile delinquents meet harden convicts who scared the crap out of them to convince that a life of crime doesn't pay. Such an experience for the graduating class of Harvard might convince future Wall Street traders and politicians to be more ethical in their dealings.

Major impact actually from MJ and MMJ

[WillAffleckUW]

When I found out the King County budget was exploding, it turned out a lot of that was for enforcement, trials, juries, and prison for people who were using MJ.

We slashed our budget by making MJ arrests the lowest enforcement priority in Seattle and Tacoma.

Then we legalized MJ and MMJ statewide.

California will soon do this as well.

It's a "crime" that is almost entirely enforced on black and brown folks even though most users and dealers are actually white.

And then they have prison records, so they can't work.

By pardoning everyone and removing these "convictions" from their records, we increase the GDP and get more people working and paying taxes.

Same for California. Same for Canada.

Re:we'll pay for prison

[angel'o'sphere]

But ....
You are aware that the USA has one of the highest amounts of imprissioned people per capita on the world? And besides Haiti and Somalia the highest crime rate. Most certainly the highest crime rate in the 'civilizes' world. Which raises the question if the USA actually belong to the civilized world.

Re:we'll pay for prison

[arth1]

What other metric would you use to pay for those prisons? Customer satisfaction?

How about recidivism rates? Pay a bonus for every prisoner that's released from a prison, every year until they are arrested again or die, whichever comes first.
That would add an incentive for rehabilitation.

unpopular fix

[frovingslosh]

I realize tat the snowflakes are going to call me a Trump fascist, but maybe it is time that these prisoners only get basic cable and not all of the premium channels.