NCJ Number
191605
Journal
Prison Review International Issue: 1 Dated: July 2001 Pages: 23-26
Date Published
July 2001
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article discusses ways to reduce operating costs in prison construction.
Abstract
When considering construction costs, agencies need to spend time planning their prisons to be the most effective from a security perspective. In addition, economies of scale must be considered when building other major support functions for a prison. Several jurisdictions across North America are building prison complexes that place a number of facilities in the same immediate area. This facilitates a sharing of resources that helps to reduce construction and operating costs. The use of prototypical designs that are site-adapted from one prison location to another also saves construction time and lowers costs. Privatizing components such as food service, health and dental services, maintenance, and even entire prisons also can lower costs. Technological developments also help reduce costs for such items as security systems. The largest portion of any operating budget is salaries and other employee-related expenses such as health/dental insurance and retirement plans. These account for approximately 70 percent of a prison budget. Anything that helps minimize these costs will have a major impact in reducing the amount expended over the life of a prison.