The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

"I think you are going to see these costs go up," said Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee. "The inmate population is trending upward."

The population of the state's 18 prisons was 19,984 on Feb. 1. This was a two-year high for the Department of Correction. Prisons average 19,160 inmates a day. This is more people than live in two-thirds of Connecticut towns.

More prisoners means more bodies to feed, clothe, house and supervise and more medical, dental and psychiatric care at taxpayer expense.

Today, the Department of Correction has the fourth largest budget in state government. The department's budget has increased $269 million from $395 million a decade ago. Yet, all this prison spending isn't enough.

The Department of Correction is looking at a budget gap of $18.2 million this year, including $3.8 million for staffing and overtime costs associated with supervising an increasing prison population, $6.5 million for food, clothing, bedding and other living supplies, and $6.5 million for medical care.

There are enough savings elsewhere in the state budget to make up the department's overruns.

But the Rell administration expects a $25.6 million gap for the department in the upcoming 2009 fiscal year. This is because of the carry-over from this year's shortfall. The administration proposed a plan to the legislature for plugging that hole within the approved state budget for 2009.

Aside from that money, Gov. M. Jodi Rell also is seeking an additional $35.1 million in new funding next year, including $10 million more for prison staffing, $6.9 million more for medical services and more than $7.3 million for supporting inmates released into the community.

"I think every state is facing the same thing," Rell said.

"I think every state is facing the same thing," Rell said.

A new report from the Pew Center on the States supports the governor's assertion. According to the report, state spending on corrections hit an all-time high in 2007 as the U.S. prison population reached historic levels.

The Pew Center reported more than 2.3 million men and women were incarcerated in federal, state, county and local prisons and jails at the start of 2008, or one in every 99.1 adults. This gives the U.S the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world.

The center's report attributed the ballooning prison population to tougher state and federal sentencing imposed since the mid-1980s. Researchers at Central Connecticut State University linked the rise in the state's prison population to such legislation being enacted here.

"States are paying a high cost for corrections," said Susan K. Urahan, managing director of the Pew Center on the States in Washington, D.C.

The center calculated that states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, an increase of $38 million from 20 years ago. Its report said rising prison populations are expected to cost state governments an additional $25 billion by 2011.

In Connecticut, there are twice as many convicted criminals in state prisons today than 20 years ago. In that time, the budget of Department of Corrections rose more than $540 million.

Today, the cost of keeping an inmate locked up here varies up to $70,000 depending on the state prison, according to legislature's budget office.

http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2008/03/02/news/321838.txt