Research/Document Library

The Price of Prisons, What Incarceration Costs Taxpayers

This report on state prison cost is unique in that it captured taxpayer costs paid by state agencies other than departments of corrections---and not just those within correction budgets. (In some state the other costs include employee benefits, capital costs, and inmate healthcare.) Additionally, the report calculates the cost of underfunded contributions to pension and retiree healthcare programs for corrections employees, figures that must be included in a comprehensive accounting of prison costs.

Among the 40 states that participated in Vera’s survey, the cost of prisons was $38.8 billion in fiscal year 2010, $5.4 billion more than what their corrections budgets reflected.

Available online

http://www.vera.org/

Author(s)

Christian Henrichson, Ruth Delaney

Date

1/26/2012

Publisher

Vera Institute of Justice

Periodical

2012

Where published

New York, NY