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Asked by: Antera Rahtgens
healthy living senior healthHow much does it cost to house a prisoner in California?
It costs an average of about $81,000 per year to incarcerate an inmate in prison in California. Over three-quarters of these costs are for security and inmate health care. Since 2010-11, the average annual cost has increased by about $32,000 or about 58 percent.
Simply so, how much does it cost to house an inmate in California per day?
For example, in California, an average bill per day to house an inmate in state prisons is about $129. The bill at some prisons is a little less depending on the cost of living in the particular state, but these figures will likely increase every year.
Consequently, how much does it cost house a prisoner?
According to the Vera Institute of Justice, incarceration costs an average of more than $31,000 per inmate, per year, nationwide. In some states, it's as much as $60,000. Taxpayers foot the bill for feeding, housing and securing people in state and federal penitentiaries.
In fact, the real cost of mass incarceration is more than double the old estimate — about $182 billion a year for private individuals and local, state, and federal governments. Most of them, in fact, are at the state and local level, where the great bulk of the criminal justice system is located.