Library Index :: Crime & Justice
 

Expenditures - Incarceration Rates Rising, Federal Corrections, State Corrections, Local Jail Expenditures By Countiesand Municipalities, Costs And Consequences

According to Lynn Bauer of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001 (May 2004), the total amount spent on corrections at the federal, state, and local levels rose from about $8.9 billion in 1982 to $57 billion in 2001, an increase of roughly 540%. During the same time period, total expenditures for police protection also increased—from $19 billion to $72.4 billion. Total judicial and legal costs rose by 385%—from $7.8 billion in 1982 to $37.8 billion in 2001. (See Table 2.1).

Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001 also reported that local governments paid for nearly half of all U.S. justice expenditures in 2001, including 70% of spending on police. State governments bore the largest share of corrections costs (67.8%). Table 2.2 presents justice spending by level of government and justice activity during fiscal year 2001.

Calculated on a per capita basis, in 1982 total spending on corrections cost each U.S. resident $39. By 2001 that figure had risen more than 400% to $200 per person. Adjusted for inflation, the increase was 222%. (See Table 2.1.) By comparison, the per capita cost of police protection, after inflation, rose by 109%, and judicial and legal costs rose 155%.

Additional Topics

Expenditures - Incarceration Rates Rising

The reasons for the escalating costs of corrections are simple enough: The official crime rate, reported by the FBI in its Uniform Crime Reports, has declined since the 1980s and early 1990s, when it averaged an annual rate of more than 5,500 crimes per 100,000 population. After reaching 5,898 crimes per 100,000 in 1991, the national rate declined to 4,063 crimes per 100,000 population by 2003. Du…

Expenditures - Federal Corrections

The Budget of the United States for Fiscal Year 2006 proposes $4.75 billion in budget authority for corrections (Washington, DC: Office of Management and Budget, February 2005). Included in this proposal are $85 million to open three new federal prisons and to expand two other facilities, $37 million to pay for the added costs of almost 4,300 inmates in existing facilities, and $20 million for 1,6…

Expenditures - State Corrections

Based on data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics in Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001, corrections represented about 3% of state and local direct expenditures in 2001. The criminal and justice system as a whole accounted for some 7% of state budgets, while 30% went to education, 14% to public welfare, and 7% to health and hospitals. These percentages have been remark…

Expenditures - Local Jail Expenditures By Countiesand Municipalities

According to Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2004), governments on the local level carry the bulk of justice system costs because police protection is primarily the responsibility of local communities. Some 59% of all justice system employees (1,357,153) are employed at the local level. (See Table 2.10.) In 2001, $50.7 billion, some 70% …

Expenditures - Costs And Consequences

The costs of corrections for the United States have been rising in absolute terms, not simply as a reflection of a growing population. In the 1980–99 time period, the number of people held behind bars would have increased more than three-fold even if the U.S. population had remained unchanged. In 1980 some 139 people were in state and federal prisons for every 100,000 U.S. residents. By 200…

Jails - Number Of Jail Inmates, Reasons For The Growinginmate Population, Largest Jail Jurisdictions, Rated Capacity [next] [back] Prevention History of Corrections—Punishment or Rehabilitation? - Ancient Times, Medieval Times, The Rise Of Nations, Colonial And Earlypost-revolutionary Periods

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