Cost of Justice
The state prison system is responsible for providing inmates with the tools needed to incite inner change and rehabilitation. Prison is no longer viewed as just a form of judicial discipline, but is seen as an opportunity to make positive changes. The financial cost to facilitate a state run prison is excessive. According to the United States Department of Justice, the state prison system is responsible for housing 304,332 inmates, both male and female. State prisons provide several levels of security for the inmates processed including low security, local jails minimum security, for low risk offenders medium security, secured risk offenders and maximum security, for high risk and dangerous offenders. Taxpayers and state funded grants are the main sources used for running state prisons. Federal funding is allotted to a state based on statistical information provided though reports to the justice divisions. Prosecutors earn 651 per case, and defense attorneys make only 196 per case. Jury members only earn ten dollars per day of service. The calculated cost sustained to house one inmate annually is 22,650. Other additional fees are as follows medical care for one inmate is 8.41 per day mental health care is 3.75 per day and meals are 1.08 per meal per day.
Counseling, inmate work programs, and educational programs have been applied within the state prison and vary in cost. It costs an estimated 4000 for an inmate to participate in a work release program.
The federal prison system is about as costly to run. In 1996, federal prosecutors and public defenders earned a salary ranging between 43-50,000, and federal judges received a salary commensurate of 60-80,000 annually (United States Government Accountability Office, 2007). Jury members earned thirty dollars per day of service. The federal prison system is weighted with an annual cost of 22,632 per inmate, and the fee to employ one correctional officer was roughly 23,000 (United States Department of Justice, 2010). The federal prison system reported a ratio of correctional officer to inmate at being 103. Probation and parole officers earned relatively decent salaries ranging between 23-69,000 annually, and some of these salaries included housing. Federally run prisons have found ways to cut some of the operational costs by mounting payphones within the facilities. The revenue brought in by the inmates using these payphones has been reported to be in excess of 15,000 per inmate (Cohen, 1998). Each facet of running a federal prison is costly, but these costs must be incurred in order to protect society and meet the judicial standard of justice.
Both the state and federal prison systems are inconvenienced with the rising number of inmates being committed to the facilities. In 2001, it was approximated to cost 38.2 billion dollars to run the prison system in the United States with a recurring cost of 3.3 billion for inmate medical care. The federal prison system spent 26 billion dollars on educational programs, while the state level prison system spent 126 billion dollars on educational programs including college level courses. This is astronomical considering that most law abiding American citizens cannot afford to attend college.
The astounding cost of justice is more than just time and aggravation spent in a courtroom. The real costs are incurred on the inside. Prisoners are afforded luxuries on the inside that most decent Americans do not receive from the comforts of their own home. Inmates enjoy newspapers, education, healthcare, counseling, work programs, meals, laundry service, cable television, and visitations from friends and family. Although the current prison system is encouraging rehabilitation over discipline, this theory would only indicate that justice has become too soft. This theory holds true especially when the taxpayer is burdened with the continued cost and maintenance encased in running a facility. Justice is not being achieved when viewing it from the long-term perspective. Changes must be made in the judicial system with regard to sentencing and mandates to be enforced upon inmates. Inmates should not be given a free ride for their maladaptive behaviors because this essentially leaves society to absorb the cost and pay for everything. Society should not be punished for an inmates wrongdoing.
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