In 1996 we taxpayers spent $933 million to operate the state prisons and an additional $550 million to repair and build more of the infernal places. That's almost a billion and a half of your tax dollars. To you that means about $1900.00 for each adult in the state.
You might want to figure out what it cost, per prisoner. Not a hard thing to figure. Half way thought the year there officially were 33,939 prisoners captive in the state joints. Do the division and you discover that you spent $43,700.00 a piece to keep state prisoners locked up.
For a lot less money, you could leave the guy on the streets paying taxes and hire an escort to follow him around all day. Plenty of people would be willing to escort a single convict all day long for $120.
But there's a flaw in the "cost per prisoner" reasoning. We surely do spend the fortune, but it's not for prisoners. It's for prisons. There are two dozen of them in the state (poor us). Now you get it. It costs $61,797.000.00 for us to have the luxury of possessing each prison.
Want to save a bundle? That's easy, reduce the number of prisons in the state. For every prison you close down, each adult in the state will save about $80.00 off his/her tax bill.
Always keep in mind that the politicians and bureaucrats try to cheat and manipulate you. Be damn careful what you believe. They want more and more of our money, so they want to build more prisons. Doesn't anyone have any common sense?
Here you've got a guy, say he's used some of the "killer weed," marijuana (competition for the Republican pushed tobacco). Does it make sense to spend $43,700.00 a year to lock the guy in prison? Wouldn't there be a great advantage to letting him be a taxpayer instead of a tax-spender?
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