What does it cost to house a prisoner in 2008?

Answer 1

About $25,000 annually in the state of Virginia.For FY08 (ending June 30, 2008) the Virginia Department of Corrections spent $1,041,886,125 (over a BILLION dollars). The VDOC employs 13,759 people and had an inmate population of 38,555 at the end of 2007. The VDOC also managed a further population of 58,804 on parole or probation.

In their budget report (see link below) it states that they spent $82,334,281 for Parole and Probation. Subtracting that from the total above leaves $959,551,884 on managing the inmate population. That covers everything from building costs to meals and medical expenses. The average per inmate is then $24,888 annual.

This quick calculation compares well with the department's own assertion that their average cost per bed is $24,332.

Investigating further (because this IS a loaded question), if we assume an annual rate of inflation of 3.5%, an inmate's lifetime cost to the taxpayers can be estimated based on how long he lives behind bars. Here are the numbers:

20 yrs = $0.7 million

30 yrs = $1.3 million

40 yrs = $2.1 million

50 yrs = $3.3 million

60 yrs = $4.9 million

Death penalty opponents often make the claim that life in prison is a cheaper way to go than a death penalty. They may be right for most cases, but it's a much closer call than they often state. There are many factors involved, but the biggest by far is the additional court costs for capital murder cases where the death penalty is sought.

An independent study (see link below) was released for the state of Marlyand in March 2008 analyzing the additional money spent prosecuting a death penalty case vs. the average non-death penalty case. The study looked at all cases between 1979 and 2008 and I assume they adjusted costs for inflation to 2008 dollars. The report showed that $107 million was spent on 56 cases that resulted in a death sentence. And $71 million was spent on 106 cases that did not.

There are two ways of looking at these numbers. You could say that the death penalty costs $1.1 million per case, or that it costs $1.9 million per conviction. Either way it's fair to say that additional court costs alone are equivalent to somewhere between 30 and 40 years in prison.

I think it's fair to say that there is no real savings to the taxpayer for a death penalty, but the costs are similar to life in prison, not 3-5 times higher as some have stated.

CORRECTION: I don't know who posted this but it's wrong. The figures from that study are for Total Lifetime Cost of a death sentence process. $1.1 million figure was for trials that did NOT seek the death penalty and covers the cost of putting someone in jail for a life sentence AND the cost to put then through court. The $1.9 million is the cost for a case where the death sentence was sought unsuccessfully, so the cost is again for trial and life sentence. A figure that was left out of this answer is the $3 million it costs for a case where the death sentence is successful, which covers the cost of the trial, appeals, imprisonment and eventual execution. So, the Maryland study DOES show that the cost of the death penalty is 3 times higher than a life sentence case. Here is the link to the report, all these facts are summarized in the Abstract.