Never mind the fact that we are not making progress for rehabilitation of inmates by keeping them in solitary, not educating them, and not teaching them skills so they can get jobs; we the taxpayers, are also paying for that failure!
Below is the 2016 annual cost per inmate for incarceration in California. Please take a look at this, because this is your money and you are not getting a good return for your dollars! Speak to your congress person and let them know you want a change for the better. There is a 60-70% recidivism rate. That could be lowered with programs like Hope for Prisoners in Nevada, more job training and better education. Take these people out of solitary and put them into jobs that will provide them skills for the outside. By the way, it costs more to keep an inmate in solitary than in general population.
How much does it cost to incarcerate an inmate?
California’s Annual Cost to Incarcerate an Inmate in Prison
2016-17
Type of Expenditure | Per Inmate Costs |
Security | $32,019 |
Inmate Health Care | $21,582 |
Medical care | 14,834 |
Psychiatric services | 3,359 |
Pharmaceuticals | 2,143 |
Dental care | 1,246 |
Facility Operations and Records | $7,025 |
Facility operations (maintenance and utilities) | 4,334 |
Classification services | 1,798 |
Maintenance of inmate records | 723 |
Reception, testing, assignment | 145 |
Transportation | 24 |
Administration | $4,171 |
Inmate Food and Activities | $3,484 |
Food | 2,082 |
Inmate employment | 823 |
Clothing | 354 |
Inmate activities | 102 |
Religious activities | 123 |
Rehabilitation Programs | $2,437 |
Academic education | 1,237 |
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy | 823 |
Vocational training | 377 |
Miscellaneous | $93 |
Total | $70,812 |
- It costs an average of about $71,000 per year to incarcerate an inmate in prison in California.
- Over three-quarters of these costs are for security and inmate health care.
- Since 2010-11, the average annual cost has increased by about $22,000 or about 45 percent. This includes an increase of $7,900 for security and $7,200 for inmate health care. This increase has been driven by various factors, including (1) employee compensation, (2) increased inmate health care costs, and (3) operational costs related to additional prison capacity to reduce prison overcrowding.
Last Updated: March 2017