NCJ Number
75812
Date Published
1980
Length
95 pages
Annotation
This report present a comprehensive account of the costs of penal measures in Great Britain.
Abstract
It aims to illustrate the different costs of a variety of penal sanctions, especially prison. Other goals are to draw attention to gaps in available information, to assess future expenditure trends, and to demonstrate the importance of indirect costs in addition to the more obvious direct costs of particular measures. Comparisons between expenditure provisions for prisons and other public services and an analysis of the state of prison buildings and the pressure on accommodation are reviewed. Prison spending is shown to have expanded considerably faster than that for most services; however, this growth has not prevented the decay and overcrowding of many of the prisons. In fact, increases in spending have contributed to the crisis by encouraging a proportionate increase in the use of custodial sanctions. An analysis of the prison budget demonstrates that only a substantial reduction in the prison population can reverse the trend of expenditure increases. Differences in expenditure between various types of prison establishments are detailed, and the vast cost of new prison projects is demonstrated. The direct cost of noncustodial sanctions also receives attention. Fines are shown to pay for the whole system of magistrates' courts, and noncustodial sanctions are revealed to be cheaper than sentences of imprisonment. Two categories of indirect costs are considered. Expenditures which are funded from nonprison budgets include such costs as social security payments to prisoners' wives. Opportunity costs resulting from resource direction to one end rather than another include a prisoner's loss of productive labor. Case studies illustrate the costs of particular sanctions. Data tables, charts, graphs, footnotes with references, and a bibliography listing about 75 references are included.