Incarceration vs. education: America spends more on its prison system than it does on public schools | Daily Mail Online
Incarceration vs. education: America spends more on its prison system than it does on public schools – and California is the worst
Most American states spend more on their prisons than they do on education - and California is the worst, investing $64,642 per prisoner compared to $11,495 per student - a $53,146 difference in spending priorities
The reasons include an incarceration rate that has tripled over the past three decades, the higher cost of caring for people in prisons 24 hours a day, and the higher number of workers required to operate a prison
New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island round out the top states spending more on prisons
The U.S. spends more on prisons and jails than it does on educating children – and 15 states spend at least $27,000 more per prisoner than they do per student, according to a new report.
Americans account for 4.4 percent of the global population, but 22 percent of the world’s prison population.
California spends $8.6 billion a year on its prison system, more than any other state, averaging $64,642 per inmate. It’s also the state with the biggest gap between education and prison spending, paying just $11,495 per student for a difference of $53,146, according to a new
analysis by personal finance site GoBankingRates.
Several factors play into the imbalance, including U.S. incarceration rates, which have more than tripled over the past three decades – even as crime rates have fallen. During the same period, government spending on K-12 education increased by 107 percent, according to a
report by the U.S. Department of Education.
Another factor in the spending gap between education and incarceration is that it takes more workers to run a prison than a school, with each American teacher supervising an average of 20.8 students, while prison guards oversee an average of 5.3 prisoners.
In addition, it costs more to house and feed prisoners three times a day, compared to school children who do not require the same 24-hour oversight.
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