Pew Publishes Major New Report
The Pew Center On The States has issued another major report on the US correctional system: “One in 31: The Long Reach of the American Correctional System“. Over the next few days, I am sure that a number of stories and analyses will emerge from their report. Right now, just the basics:
States spend seven times more money on prisons than on probation and parole, even though the vast majority of the 7.3 million adults now under correctional supervision are not behind bars, according to the first detailed survey of state corrections spending since 2002. Counting offenders on probation and parole, one in 31 U.S. adults is under some form of correctional supervision, including incarceration, according to the study.
The new report focuses on the more than 5 million adults under probation or parole supervision, either because their crimes did not warrant incarceration or because they have been released after serving time. States, the Pew study contends, devote a disproportionately small amount of funding to the management of these offenders, when compared with what they spend on criminals currently behind bars — even taking into consideration the far greater costs of operating prisons … The 34 states that provided complete spending data for the study collectively poured $18.65 billion into prisons in fiscal 2008, while spending just $2.53 billion on probation and parole programs — a ratio of more than seven to one, the report found. The average daily cost of supervising someone on probation was $3.42 in fiscal 2008, the study said, compared with $78.95 for the cost of incarcerating an inmate.
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