Prison and The Economy

  • Reallocating Justice Resources A Review of 2011 State Sentencing Trends, [PDF]
    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, 2011 [PDF]
    Bureau 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.”
  • The Price of Prisons What Incarceration Costs Taxpayers, [PDF]
    Vera Institute, 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...”
  • Improving Budget Analysis of State Criminal Justice Reforms A Strategy for Better Outcomes and Saving Money, [PDF]
    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.”
  • Correctional Spending Trends Budget Information Report, [PDF]
    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, [PDF]
    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.”
  • System Overload The Costs of Under-Resourcing Public Defense, [PDF]
    Justice Policy Institute, July, 2011
    “In state-based public defender offices, 15 of the 19 reporting state programs exceeded the maximum recommended limit of felony or misdemeanor cases per attorney.”
  • Sentencing Reform Amid Mass INcarcerationâ€"Guarded Optimism, [PDF]
    Sentencing Project, May, 2011
    “A number of state have scaled back mandatory sentencing policies, "school zone" drug laws, and sentencing enhancements such as "truth in sentencing."”
  • FY 2010 Operating Per Capita Cost Report Cost Identification and Comparison of State and Private Contract Beds, [PDF]
    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 2010 [PDF]
    Bureau 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, [PDF]
    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 Budge Doing the Same Thing and Expecting Different Results, [PDF]
    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.”
  • Banking on Bondage Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration, [PDF]
    ACLU, 2011
    (The evidence that private prisons provide savings compared to publicly operated facilities is highly questionable, and certain studies point to worse conditions in for-profit facilities.)
  • Ex-offenders and the Labor Market [PDF]
    Center 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, [PDF]
    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 Continuing Fiscal Crisis in Corrections Setting a New Course, [PDF]
    The 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 Hidden Costs of Criminal Justice Debt [PDF]
    Brennan 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.”
  • Collateral Costs Incarceration's Effect on Economic Mobility, [PDF]
    Pew Charitable Trust, Economic Mobility Project, September, 2010
    “Serving time reduces hourly wages for men by approximately 11 percent, annual employment by 9 weeks and annual earnings by 40 percent.”
  • Department of Corrections-Prison Population Growth A Report to the Arizona Legislature, [PDF]
    State of Arizona Office of the Auditor General, September, 2010
    “The State paid more per inmate in private prisons that for equivalent services in state facilities.”
  • The Costs of Confinement Why Good Juvenile Justice Policies Make Good Fiscal Sense, [PDF]
    Justice Policy Institute, May, 2009
    (Cost of Confinement shows that states spend billions to imprison youth in secure facilities, but could save money, preserve public safety, and improve life outcomes for individual youth by redirecting the money to community-based alternatives.)
  • Fact Sheet on FY2010 Department of Justice Budget [PDF]
    Justice Policy Institute, May, 2009
    (The Factsheet on 2010 Department of Justice Budget finds that the 2010 DOJ budget directs more money to law enforcement than prevention with the likely long-term outcome being increased arrests, incarceration, and money spent on corrections.)
  • Pruning Prisons How Cutting Corrections Can Save Money and Protect Public Safety, [PDF]
    Justice Policy Institute, May, 2009
    (The United States spends spend billions to incarcerate people in prisons and jails with little impact on public safety, but redirecting funds to community-based alternatives will decrease prison populations, save money, and preserve public safety.)
  • One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections, [PDF]
    The Pew Center on the States, March, 2009
    “For eight geographically diverse states [...] 88% of the increase in corrections spending was directed towards prisons, which now consume nearly nine out of every ten state corrections dollars.”
  • The State of Sentencing 2008 Developments in Policy and Practice, [PDF]
    Sentencing Project, February, 2009
    “A nationwide budget crisis coupled with widespread prison overcrowding has led many states to address critical challenges in the areas such as sentencing, drug policy, parole revocation, racial justice, disenfranchisement, juvenile justice, and education.”
  • Compounded Disadvantage Race, Incarceration, and Wage Growth, [PDF]
    National Poverty Center, October, 2008
    “Multilevel growth curve models show that black inmates earn considerably less than white inmates, even after considering human capital variables and prior work histories. Furthermore, racial divergence in wages among inmates increases following release...”
  • Impacts of Jail Expansion in New York State: A Hidden Burden, [PDF]
    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.)
  • Saving Futures, Saving Dollars The Impact of Education on Crime Reduction and Earnings, [PDF]
    Alliance for Excellent Education, September, 2006
    “[A]bout 75 percent of America's state prison inmates,almost 59 percent of federal inmates, and 69 percent of jail inmates did not complete high school.”
  • Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2003 [PDF]
    Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2006
  • Foreign Nationals in Michigan Prisons an examination of the costs, [PDF]
    Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending, April, 2006
    “The Governor should appoint an indepen- dent 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, 2004 [PDF]
    Washington 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...”
  • Protecting the Future: Moderating West Virginia's Budget Crisis,
    Grassroots Leadership, February, 2005
  • Offender Work Report, 2002 [PDF]
    Washington State Jail Industries Board, 2005
  • Changing Fortunes or Changing Attitudes? Sentencing and Corrections Reforms in 2003, [PDF]
    Vera Institute of Justice, August, 2004
  • State Prison Expenditures, 2001 [PDF]
    Bureau of Justice Statistics, June, 2004
  • Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001 [PDF]
    Bureau of Justice Statistics, May, 2004
  • Locked Up: Corrections Policy in New Hampshire Paper 2: Options for Reducing the Prison Population and the Cost of Incarceration, [PDF]
    New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, February, 2004
  • Offender Work Report, 2003 [PDF]
    Washington State Jail Industries Board, 2004
  • 2002 State Expenditure Report [PDF]
    National Association of State Budget Officers, November, 2003
  • Smart On Crime: Positive Trends in State-Level Sentencing and Corrections Policy, [PDF]
    Families Against Mandatory Minimums, November, 2003
  • 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)
  • Dollars, Sentences and Long-Term Public Safety Managing a Fiscal Crisis with a Goal of Long-Term Public Safety, [PDF]
    Middle Ground Prison Reform, September, 2003
    (Arizona sentencing policy recommendations)
  • Upstate New York's Population Plateau: The Third-Slowest Growing 'State', [PDF]
    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, [PDF]
    Vera Institute of Justice, July, 2003
  • EPA helps prisons get up to speed on environmental compliance
    Environmental Protection Agency, June, 2003
  • Drug Policies in the State of Michigan: Economic Effects, [PDF]
    Justice Policy Institute, May, 2003
  • Borrowing Against the Future: The Impact of Prison Expansion on Arizona Families, Schools and Communities, [PDF]
    Grassroots Leadership and Arizona Advocacy Network, April, 2003
  • Cutting Correctly in Maryland [PDF]
    Justice Policy Institute, February, 2003
    (lowering prison population will ease budget crisis)
  • Incarceration and Correctional Spending in Colorado A Legislator's Handbook on Criminal Justice Policy, 2003, [PDF]
    Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, February, 2003
  • Big Prisons, Small Towns: Prison Economics in Small Rural America, [PDF]
    Sentencing Project, February, 2003
  • Seeking Balance: Reducing Prison Costs in Times of Austerity,
    Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, February, 2003
  • Cutting Correctly, One Year Later: State Budget Crisis and Corrections Reform, [PDF]
    Justice Policy Institute, January, 2003
  • The economic impacts of the prison development boom on persistently poor rural places, [PDF]
    Farrigan and Glasmeier, 2003
  • Community Corrections in Ohio: Cost Savings and Program Effectiveness,
    Justice Policy Institute and Policy Matters Ohio, December, 2002
    (Ohio has realized considerable cost savings by using community corrections programs instead of prison)
  • Building a prison economy in rural America
    Tracy Huling, October, 2002
  • Blueprint for Cost-Effective Pretrial Detention, Sentencing, and Corrections Systems, [PDF]
    American Bar Association, August, 2002
  • State Expenditure Report, 2001 [PDF]
    National Association of State Budget Officers, July, 2002
    (See chapter 5)
  • Cutting Correctly: New Prison Policies for Times of Fiscal Crisis, [PDF]
    Justice Policy Institute, February, 2002
  • Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 1999 [PDF]
    Bureau 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.”
  • State Sentencing and Corrections Policy in an Era of Fiscal Restraint [PDF]
    Sentencing Project, February, 2002
  • Prison Expansion in a Time of Austerity: An Analysis of the Governor's Proposed New Prison in Delano,
    Justice Policy Institute, January, 2002
    (California)
  • Offender Work Report, 2001 [PDF]
    Washington State Jail Industries Board, 2002
  • Locked Up: Corrections Policy in New Hampshire Paper 1: The Fiscal Consequences of Incarceration Policies, 1981 to 2001, [PDF]
    New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, September, 2001
  • Offender Work Report, 2000 [PDF]
    Washington State Jail Industries Board, 2001
  • Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 1995 [PDF]
    Bureau of Justice Statistics, November, 1999
  • Regulating the American Labor Market: The Role of the Prison Industrial Complex, [PDF]
    David Ladipo, September, 1999
  • State Prison Expenditures, 1996 [PDF]
    Bureau 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)
  • The Prison Industrial Complex
    Eric Schlosser, Atlantic Monthly, December, 1998
  • Truth In Sentencing: Availability of Federal Grants Influenced Laws in Some States, [PDF]
    General Accounting Office, February, 1998
  • Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts, 1992 [PDF]
    Bureau of Justice Statistics, January, 1997
  • Rural Prisons: An Update [PDF]
    Calvin 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, [PDF]
    General Accounting Office, 1996
  • Prison as Industry [PDF]
    New York State Coalition for Criminal Justice, 1994
  • Justice Expenditure and Employment, 1990 [PDF]
    Bureau 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 Private Sector and Prison Industries [PDF]
    National Institute of Justice, August, 1985
    “As of January 1985, there were 26 projects in which the private sector was involved with State-level prison industries. There has been a gradual growth [...] until 1980, when a marked increase occurred at a rate that continues to grow today.”

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