In what may be a slap in the face to California students, a new study reveals that California has invested more money during the past 20 years in its prison system than it has on educating its youth. Between 1994 and 1995, the California state prison system spent slightly less than $33,000 on each inmate. The study also revealed that the California government plans to spend $60,000 per prisoner this year. Thats more money on a single inmate than what most American households are expected to earn this year alone! That amount is significantly higher than the amount it spends on its educational system. In stark contrast, California spent only $6,971 per student in 1994. And instead of doubling that amount, the state increased it by only 17.9% this year, spending only $8,200 per K-12 student. In other words, spending per prisoner in California has increased nearly five times faster than spending per K-12 student over the past two decades. While the legalization of marijuana and other drug based diversion programs has caused a slight decrease in prison population, the increased prevalence of privately run prisons has caused a dramatic increase in cost per inmate per year. What must be taken into account is that the privatization of prison systems not only undermine the quality of how prisons are run, but that their dramatic increase in costs takes money away from important investments such as its educational system, which is one of the worst in the country. So for proponents of smaller government, does this mean that government does something better than private enterprise, that is the running of prison systems?
Posted on: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 17:59:16 +0000