The cost of housing New York City’s inmates last year was $167,000 per inmate.
That’s according to the Independent Budget Office’s first-ever study of the city’s jails. More than 12,000 inmates were jailed on an average day.
The IBO says that the average annual cost per inmate covers additional expenses such as staff salaries, fringe benefits, facility maintenance and capital expenditures.
Michael Jacobson, the former president of the Vera Institute of Justice, told the New York Post (http://bit.ly/151JGO8 ) that those were fixed costs that don’t change.
He says the number of inmates was about half of what it was in the early 1990s. The inmate population peaked at 21,000 in 1992.
The study also found that 57 percent of inmates were black, 33 percent Hispanic and 7 percent white.
(AP)
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2 Responses
They could cut costs by releasing people not accused of violent crimes, or routinely granting affordable bail for anyone who has never been convicted of a serious crime (and New York City prisons only hold people awating trial or serving minor sentences – serious sentences are paid for by the state) — however wouldn’t that deprive the prison staff of parnassah?
So according to the study 90% of inmates are black and latino. What exactly then is everyone up in arms about when stop and frisks disproportionately target minorities?