At $75K, housing a prisoner in California now costs more than a year at Harvard

The cost of imprisoning each of California’s 130,000 inmates is expected to reach a record $75,560 in the next year

More than tuition at

That’s enough to cover the annual cost of attending Harvard University and still have plenty left over for pizza and beer

Gov. ’s spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1 includes a record $11.4 billion for the corrections department while also predicting that there will be 11,500 fewer inmates in four years because voters in November approved earlier releases for many inmates. Cost per prisoner has doubled since 2005

The price for each inmate has doubled since 2005, even as court orders related to overcrowding have reduced the population by about one-quarter. Op-Ed: The never-ending ‘Willie Horton effect’ is keeping prisons too full for America’s good

‘I took someone’s life — now I am giving back’: In California’s prisons, inmates teach each other how to start over

Source: www.latimes.com