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The Cost of Incarcerating Inmates in State-Run Prisons
Each fiscal year, the department calculates and publishes the amount of incarceration costs per inmate. The department's calculation focuses primarily on those operating costs directly related to housing and supporting inmates, such as food, clothing, health care, and inmate activities. For fiscal year 1996-97, the department calculated annual incarceration costs at $21,012 per inmate. We reviewed the department's calculation and found that, although it appropriately reflects many of the operating costs, it does not include all costs incurred by the State. When we included all of the costs, we found that annual incarceration costs were $24,807 per inmate for fiscal year 1996-97, $3,795 higher per inmate than the department's published figure. The total difference of costs to incarcerate inmates between the department's calculation and our estimate is $517 million....
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