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eNewsletter - June 3, 2009
Resources
The Justice Policy Institute released two reports showing that states spend billions of dollars to incarcerate youth in juvenile justice facilities and adults in prisons, but the money could be reinvested in community-based alternatives to save states money in the long term, preserve public safety, and improve the life outcomes of individuals.
The Costs of Confinement: Why Good Juvenile Justice Policies Make Good Fiscal Sense finds that states spend about $5.7 billion each year imprisoning youth, even though the majority are held for nonviolent offenses. The brief concludes that most youth could be managed safely in the community through alternatives that cost substantially less than incarceration and could lower recidivism by up to 22 percent. These alternatives are also more cost-effective in reducing crime than incarceration, yielding up to $13 in benefits for every dollar spent.
Pruning Prisons: How Cutting Corrections Can Save Money and Protect Public Safety finds that similar benefits can be found in the adult system through investments in treatment and parole services. States could save a combined $4.1 billion by increasing the availability of parole by shifting 10 percent of the prison population into the parole system, and improving parole support and services so that fewer people are returned to prison for technical (rule) violations. Additionally, the report finds that community-based drug treatment provides bigger crime reduction returns than prison--for every dollar spent on drug treatment in the community, the state receives $18 in benefits.