Prisons and Priorities: States Spend $44 Billion on Incarceration

by Kristina Gupta, Policy Fellow
National Women's Law Center

The Pew Research Center just released a new report about our prison system, called One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008. According to the report, for the first time in our history, more than 1 in 100 American adults are confined in a prison or jail. Men are still about 10 times more likely to be incarcerated than women, but the female prison population is growing quickly. Incarceration rates for some groups of women are staggeringly high – 1 in 100 Black women between the ages of 35 and 40 are currently incarcerated.

Our decision as a nation to incarcerate a significant proportion of our population (more than any other country in the world) has huge social and political ramifications. Last year states spent more than $44 billion on incarceration costs, which is almost 7 percent of state general funds. State spending on corrections has increased six times as fast as state spending on higher education. This comes at a time when states are facing significant budget shortfalls. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, at least 25 states face budget shortfalls in 2009. State budget cuts mean cuts in programs for low-income women and their families – including cuts in health care, child care, and education funding. Ironically, many of these programs can actually reduce crime and incarceration over the long term.

Over the last 20 years, our country’s prison population has nearly tripled, and all we are doing is incarcerating an ever greater number of non-violent, low-level offenders. There are plenty of cost-effective, evidence-based alternatives for states to manage low-risk offenders while still ensuring public safety. Once again, it all comes down to a question of priorities. Do we want to invest in programs for low-income families like health care, education and child care? Or do we want to continue to spend billions of dollars to imprison 2.3 million Americans, the majority of whom don’t really need to be in prison? The answer is pretty clear to me.