WYOMING – Nearly 1.5 million Americans were incarcerated in state prisons in 2016. That same year, US states spent about $58 billion to keep these people locked up.
As the cost of incarceration continues to rise across the country, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the states with the highest and lowest prison spending per person.
Wyoming is not alone in facing prison overcrowding at the State Penitentiary in Rawlins. In April, Wyoming transferred 88 prisoners from Rawlins to a private prison in Mississippi. Staffing shortages, space limitations, and cost-saving measures were cited as reasons for the move, which is not expected to be the last of its kind.
According to the Casper Star Tribune, the cost to house one prisoner is about $131 a day. At the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, a private prison in Tutwiler, Mississippi, run by CoreCivic, the state will pay $70.42 a day to keep its prisoners there.
The 24/7 Wall St. report found very similar numbers—a $129.11 a day with 11% of its incarcerated currently in private prisons. Wyoming ranked 7th highest in the “What it Costs to Run Prisons in Your State” list.
#7 Wyoming in a snapshot
- State correctional institution spending: $239.11 per capita ($140 million)
- State prisoners: 406 per 100,000 residents (21st highest)
- Average correctional officer salary: $40,900 (21st highest)
- State prisoners in private prisons: 11% (16th highest)
How much each state spends on prisons goes far beyond a simple per prisoner calculation. In fact, there is little to no correlation between the states that spend the most per capita and the states with more prisoners per capita. Instead, variations in state spending boil down to a range of budgetary factors and policy decisions.
Prisons have many expenses related to their main function of confining lawbreakers. In addition to securing the prisoners with infrastructure, technology, and personnel, they have to provide inmates with basic necessities such as food, health care, and even entertainment. On a per capita basis, state prison spending ranges from less than $100 per person to nearly $500 per person.
To identify how much each state spends on corrections, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed state prison spending from the National Association of State Budget Officers, as collected by The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit focusing on criminal justice reform. Average annual correctional officer salaries are from the Department of Labor. Incarceration rates and the share of prisoners in private prisons are from The Sentencing Project, and crime rates per 100,000 are from the FBI Unified Crime report. All figures listed are for 2016, with the exception of the private prisoner figure, which is for 2015.
