Prisons Are Overcrowded With Inmates

While this may not sound like a huge expense, this expense can be taxing on a family who is already struggling to provide for their family and a prisoner who has a low paying job, if they are lucky enough to have one of the limited jobs available in prisons. While there are jobs that can be worked while they are incarcerated, they are not well paying and there are not jobs available to every prisoner. Because of this, most prisoners rely on their families to be able to help them get the necessary things they need to

Furthermore, with respects to monetary resources and cost-effectiveness, juvenile drug court is significantly less expensive than detention. When a juvenile is sentenced to a confinement facility, the cost could be anywhere from $32,000 to $65,000 per person. This is an enormous gap in cost, which can be attributed to the increased expenses that are related to potential detention expenditures. To further explain, a study in New York states that detaining a juvenile in a facility is fifteen times more expensive than any alternative, such as juvenile drug court. According to Gaudio (2010), “The Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that for every dollar spent on county juvenile detention systems, there was only $1.98 of “benefits” in terms of reduced crime and costs of crime to taxpayers. Diversion and mentoring programs, on the other hand, produced $3.36 of benefits for every dollar spent, aggression replacement training produced $10.00 of benefits, and multi-systemic therapy produced $13.00 of benefits (p. 7).”

UCLA Drug Abuse Researcher M. Douglas Anglin said drug offender sent from correctional system into treatment saves a little more than 2,300 dollars per offender.

If we are going to seriously consider an alternative solution to the financially murderous process of our current drug policies, one must take fiscal responsibility into consideration. A California governmental study showed that taxpayers save $7 for every $1 invested in drug treatment. The state's impartial Legislative Analyst says Proposition 36 can save California hundreds of millions of dollars a year, even after spending $120 million annually on treatment programs. In comparison, "The average cost to the taxpayer of California per inmate, per year is $23, 406." (Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1997.) "The average cost of a full treatment program per client is $4,300." (National Treatment Evaluation Study, Center for Substance Abuse, 1997.) Beyond these statistics, "Currently, only 12% of the overall parole system budget is spent reintegrating paroles back into society." (Legislative Analyst's Office, Analysis of the '98-'99 Budget Bill, 2000.)

An option for Community Based treatment can be unpaid community service, which offers them an opportunity to pay back the communities they have victimized and offended. In addition to the community work, “Community work can help offenders make a fresh start in life. Offenders given work opportunities and skills are less likely to reoffend and many projects incorporate accredited training. Community work can increase offenders’ self-esteem and well-being and give their lives new purpose and direction” (Corrections, Prisons & Parole). As they work on themselves and pay their debt to society, they improve the environment in the communities and they free money in the budgets that are in place to pay for these services. When less money is spent on cleanup efforts, it leaves room for improvement in other social

America cannot afford to continue incarcerating nonviolent criminals. Why reward offenders with food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and treatment programs at the taxpayers ' expense? Community supervision programs that require offenders to work to support themselves and their families make better sense. In addition, offenders should pay supervision fees, restitution to victims and court costs. Further, offenders on community supervision could utilize to addiction treatment programs and mental health services to avoid re-offending. Community supervision offers an excellent alternative to the high cost of incarceration while shifting the financial burden to the offender.

Jails depend on three main resources for operation which include the public, the local government, and the sheriff. Within the local power structure jails must compete for scarce resources with schools, hospitals, parks and other more popular facilities (Mays and Thompson, 1991). Prisons are maintained by the states or the federal government. Running a prison can be costly, so the logic behind prison fees is that

When the term corrections is mentioned, the thought of incarceration is the first to come to mind. This is the case for as of the end of 2013, there were 1,574,700 people serving time in state and federal penitentiaries (Carson, 2014, p.1). This alarming number gives reason for the need of alternatives to incarceration. Avoiding imprisonment does not translate to a lenient punitive sentence for the alternatives can just as easily repair harms to the victims, provide benefits to the community, treat the drug addicted, and rehabilitate offenders (FAMM, 2013, p.1). The use of programs that offer an alternative to incarceration can reduce the amount of people in the prison system that is living on taxpayers’ dollars.

According to McCollister, French, Inciardi, et al (2003) it is more cost effective to provide treatment rather than incarceration. One full year of treatment costs approximately $4,700 and one year of incarceration costs approximately $18,400. According to Alexander (2010) it has become lucrative for business to invest in prison labour. Resulting in free labour. This is a separate issue within itself which speaks more toward the racialization of the prison system in which there are more blacks in prison now then there were slaves at the heart of slavery. However, they have been criminalized to the degree that their incarceration is believed to be deserved even if it is for using drugs verses dealing drugs. There is no viewed difference. For example, during an interview at the Office of the Federal Public Defenders office, an inmate revealed they were putting together sophisticated computer technology for companies like Apple. This example alone provides a foundational knowledge that people that are incarcerated, have marketable skills for life outside of prison. Re-entry Training is vital to the inmates getting out of prison to get out of the revolving door and staying out of prison. Providing assistance to help a person establish and reach short term and long-term goals, is essential in ensuring that the people do not feel left

Historically, according to NPR, people who get involved in the court system began to pay for their fees, fines, and costs at the time of the War on Crime and War on Drug. “[The] states struggled with budget deficits…[therefore] states started charging user fees to defendants.” (Shapiro, 2014).

The cost of drug rehabilitation, when compared to the costs of incarceration, is the more economical choice. In some cases, the addict is held responsible for the cost of their own treatment program if they are able. In the case they could not pay, the cost to the taxpayers is roughly only one quarter the cost of jailing them for a year. For example, in California “a year in [jail] costs $23,000 per inmate, compared with a $3,000

Prison overcrowding is one of the most burdensome problems plaguing our criminal justice system, but privatization is not the answer. The federal prison population increased by almost 800 percent between 1980 and 2013. (Pelaez, 2016).This is a much faster rate than the most state prisons could accommodate in their own facilities. In an effort to manage the rising prison population, many states began contracting with privately operated correctional institutions to house inmates. There are patterns of abuse, especially against the mentally ill in prisons operated by for-profit companies such as the Corrections Corporations of America also known as "CCA". Many of these for profit corporations have been accused of providing abysmal care to prisoners.

The Bureau of Prisons spends a large amount of money housing, feeding, and attempting to rehabilitate convicts. Given the current laws in place, it is hard to offset the costs required to run those prisons. Residents participating in halfway house programs are extremely low cost when compared to those inmates residing in the prison system. The differences in costs can be associated the lower amount of compensation for staff, smaller facilities, and cheaper utilities. The residents of halfway houses are required to give 25 percent of the gross income they earn to the Bureau of Prisons. Given the large difference in cost factors, halfway houses are a very economical way for the Bureau of Prisons to save money on the last six months of an inmate’s sentence.

The GEO Group also profits after their prisoners are released. The GEO Group made a $415 million acquisition of Behavioral Interventions Inc. (BI) with a group of Wall Street firms, including Bank of America and JPMorgan, providing the financing. BI is the largest company that electronically monitors parolees and probationers, over 60,000 nationwide. Yes, many states have also decided to privatize their probation and parole services. After their release, prisoners immediately enter into a debt system. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bearden v. Georgia that a probationer can’t be jailed if they can’t afford a criminal fine; however, who determines if someone can afford his fines and fees is often decided by private probation companies which have a clear conflict of interest. “Many of these probation companies are not really acting like probation officers at all but debt collectors,” says Chris Albin-Lackey, Senior Researcher for Human Rights Watch.

Community corrections are facilities that give sanctions to adults that failed to follow the law. Instead of going to prison or jails usually a judge give the adult that committed the crime a punishment. Sometimes the punishment could be a requirement to pay a fine, take classes on anger management or other related topics and do community service. Community corrections also designed with the purpose of housing custody inmates and paroles and probation violators. Community corrections are designed with the goal of maintaining the safety in the communities.