The Costs of the Carceral Society
September 4th, 2008 by SocProf and tagged economics, Prison, Social Deviance, Sociology, surveillance society
So we know that the United States has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the prison population and the largest prison population in the world. What are the costs associated with incarcerating so many people? Via Chris Uggen, Mother Jones has extensive reporting on the issue, their prison guide, as they call it, with data galore.
For instance, California spends $49,000 per inmate per year. How is that money spent?
Chris Uggen summarizes the data in a neat pie chart (click to make it bigger):
Posted in Economy, Social Deviance, Social Institutions, Sociology | No Comments »
