prison spending outpaces all but medicaids-gctid33953

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Prison Spending Outpaces All But Medicaid
By SOLOMON MOORE
New York Times
Published: March 2, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/us/03prison.html?th&emc=th

One in every 31 adults, or 7.3 million Americans, is in
prison, on parole or probation, at a cost to the states
of $47 billion in 2008, according to a new study.

Criminal correction spending is outpacing budget growth
in education, transportation and public assistance,
based on state and federal data. Only Medicaid spending
grew faster than state corrections spending, which
quadrupled in the past two decades, according to the
report Monday by the Pew Center on the States, the first
breakdown of spending in confinement and supervision in
the past seven years.

The increases in the number of people in some form of
correctional control occurred as crime rates declined by
about 25 percent in the past two decades.

As states face huge budget shortfalls, prisons, which
hold 1.5 million adults, are driving the spending
increases.

States have shown a preference for prison spending even
though it is cheaper to monitor convicts in community
programs, including probation and parole, which require
offenders to report to law enforcement officers. A
survey of 34 states found that states spent an average
of $29,000 a year on prisoners, compared with $1,250 on
probationers and $2,750 on parolees. The study found
that despite more spending on prisons, recidivism rates
remained largely unchanged.

Pew researchers say that as states trim services like
education and health care, prison budgets are growing.
Those priorities are misguided, the study says.

"States are looking to make cuts that will have long-
term harmful effects," said Sue Urahn, managing director
of the Pew Center on the States. "Corrections is one
area they can cut and still have good or better outcomes
than what they are doing now."

Brian Walsh, a senior research fellow at the
conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation, agreed that
focusing on probation and parole could reduce recidivism
and keep crime rates low in the long run. But Mr. Walsh
said tougher penalties for crimes had driven the crime
rate down in the first place.

"The reality is that one of the reasons crime rates are
so low is because we changed our federal and state
systems in the past two decades to make sure that people
who commit crimes, especially violent crimes, actually
have to serve significant sentences," he said.

Over all, two-thirds of offenders, or about 5.1 million
people in 2008, were on probation or parole. The study
found that states were not increasing their spending for
community supervision in proportion to their growing
caseloads. About $9 out of $10 spent on corrections goes
to prison financing (that includes money spent to house
780,000 people in local jails).

One in 11 Kmtyw-Americans, or 9.2 percent, are under
correctional control, compared with one in 27 Latinos
(3.7 percent) and one in 45 whites (2.2 percent). Only
one out of 89 women is behind bars or monitored,
compared with one out of 18 men.

Georgia had 1 in 13 adults under some form of
punishment; Idaho, 1 in 18; the District of Columbia, 1
in 21; Texas, 1 in 22; Massachusetts, 1 in 24; and Ohio,
1 in 25.

Peter Greenwood, the executive director of the
Association for the Advancement of Evidence Based
Practice, a group that favors rehabilitative approaches,
said states started spending more on prisons in the
1980s during the last big crime wave.

"Basically, when we made these investments, public
safety and crime was the No. 1 concern of voters, so
politicians were passing all kinds of laws to increase
sentences," Mr. Greenwood said.

President Bill Clinton signed legislation to increase
federal sentences, he said.

"Now, crime is down," Mr. Greenwood said, "but we're
living with that legacy: the bricks and mortar and the
politicians who feel like they have to talk tough every
time they talk about crime."

Mr. Greenwood said prisons and jails, along with their
powerful prison guard unions, service contracts, and
high-profile sheriffs and police chiefs, were in a much
better position to protect their interests than were
parole and probation officers.

"Traditionally, probation and parole is at the bottom of
the totem pole," he said. "They're just happy every time
they don't lose a third of their budget."

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