| State
Prison Expenditures, 2001
By James J. Stephan
BJS Statistician
Correctional authorities spent $38.2 billion
to maintain the Nation's State correctional systems in fiscal year 2001,
including $29.5 billion specifically for adult correctional facilities.
Day-today
operating expenses totaled $28.4 billion,
and capital outlays for land, new building, and renovations, $1.1 billion.
The average annual operating cost per State
inmate in 2001 was $22,650, or $62.05 per day. Among facilities operated
by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, it was $22,632 per inmate, or $62.01
per day.
In a followup to a study based on FY 1996 data,
this report presents unique statistics on the cost of operating State prisons
in FY 2001. Information was obtained by extracting corrections data from
each State's responses to the U.S. Census Bureau?s annual Survey of Government
Finances. Item categories were standardized across jurisdictions, and reported
figures were verified with State budget officials.
Expenditures are the total amounts paid for
prison operations, including interest on indebtedness. Figures are net
of amounts derived from revenuegenerating activities such as farm and
industrial production and services.
States spent $29.5 billion for prisons
in 2001, about a $5½ billion increase from 1996, after adjusting
for inflation
Prison operations consumed about
77% of State correctional costs in FY 2001. The remaining 23% was spent
on juvenile justice, probation and parole, community-based corrections,
and central office administration.
State prison costs per U.S. resident
more than doubled between 1986 and 2001.
State correctional expenditures
increased 145% in 2001 constant dollars from $15.6 billion in FY 1986 to
$38.2 billion in FY 2001; prison expenditures increased 150% from
$11.7 billion to $29.5 billion.
Excluding capital spending, the
average cost of operating State
prisons in FY 2001 was $100 per
U.S. resident, up from $90 in FY 1996.
Outlays for new prison construction,
renovations, equipment, and other capital account activities amounted to
less than 4% of total prison expenditures in most States.
Spending on medical care for State
prisoners totaled $3.3 billion, or 12% of operating expenditures in 2001.
The increase in cost of corrections
outpaced the cost of health, education, or natural resources State spending
for corrections increased from $65 per resident in 1986 to $134 in 2001
(table 1). Per capita expenditures for State prison
operations alone rose from $49
in 1986 to $104 in 2001.
At an average annual increase of
6.2% for total State correctional spending and 6.4% specifically for prisons,
increases in the cost of adult
incarceration outpaced those of health care (5.8%), education (4.2%), and
natural resources (3.3%).
Although correctional spending grew
at a faster rate than many other State payments between 1986 and 2001,
it
remained one of the smaller cost
items. For example, the outlay for education, at $374.5 billion, was nearly
10 times larger, and that for welfare, at $260.3 billion, was nearly 7
times larger.
Selected State expenditures, FY
2001:
Education
$374.5 billion
Public welfare
$260.3
Health
$43.7
Total corrections $38.2
Prisons
$29.5
Natural resources $17.3
State correctional expenditures
include the cost of operating prisons and related institutions. Such institutions
are reformatories; prison farms; centers for the reception, evaluation,
and classification of inmates; and correctional facilities exclusively
for the criminally insane or for the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction.
State correctional expenditures
are primarily for operating adult facilities. Other spending pays for juvenile
correctional activities, adult parole boards and programs (including court
programs), and correctional administration
not associated with specific penal institutions.
States spent $29.5 billion on
prisons in fiscal 2001
State prison expenditures totaled
$29.5 billion in fiscal year 2001. Adjusted for inflation, this was approximately
$5.5
billion more than was spent in
FY 1996.
Operating costs averaged $22,650
per inmate in fiscal year 2001
State prison operating expenditures
totaled $28.4 billion in fiscal year 2001. This total, divided by the number
of prisoners, produced a nationwide average annual operating
cost per inmate of $22,650. Adjusted
for inflation, the equivalent figure in 1996 was $22,515.
The average operating cost to incarcerate
one inmate in the Federal Bureau of Prisons system during FY 2001 was
$22,632. The $28.4 billion State
operating cost, divided by the U.S. resident population, resulted in a
nationwide average
operating expenditure of $100 per
person.
|
Virginia Prison/Prisoner
Expenditures (As of June 2008)
DOC State Correctional Facilities (33,500 State-Responsible Offenders
in Prison)
State-Responsible Offenders Housed in Jails (5,360)
Local and Regional Jails (20,400 Local-Responsible Offenders in Jail)
In state spending per capita on local and regional jails, Virginia
ranks second highest in the nation, according to a new Senate Finance Committee
survey.
Growth in Spending on Corrections
From FY 1998 to 2010, state general fund appropriations for adult
corrections will have increased almost 88 percent (for an average annual
rate of growth of 5.4 percent per year):
Key spending drivers in DOC have included: - Growth in the inmate
population, including opening eight new major prisons and over 10,000 new
beds; - Increased inmate medical costs; - Increased salary and benefit
costs, including a special salary increase and enhanced retirement benefits
for correctional officers.
Virginia spent $130 per capita on state adult corrections in 2005,
ranking 19th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and just
above the national average.
CORRECTIONS SPENDING PER INMATE (FY 2005)
Virginia spent $31,200 per inmate on state adult corrections in 2005,
ranking 24th among the 50 states, and above the national average of $28,550.
U.S. Average = $28,550
Impact of Budget Reductions
DOC is the largest state agency in FTE employment, with over 13,600
authorized positions, and a total budget of $1.1 billion (from all funds)
in FY 2009.
In the October round of budget reductions, prison security and medical
services (which account for 62 percent of the GF budget) were exempted
from the reduction targets.
Reductions to date for FY 2009 total $45 million, or about 11.6 percent
of the rest of the DOC budget that was not exempted from the reduction
targets.
Six facilities have been closed, eliminating 1,440 beds, and DOC
has temporarily stopped taking in state prisoners from jails (with very
few exceptions).
The “out-of-compliance” backlog of state-responsible prisoners housed
in jails is projected to increase to about 3,600 in June 2009 and to about
4,600 in June 2010. The backlog has not reached these levels before.
The reductions have also affected district probation offices and
residential substance abuse treatment. |
