I been thinking about how you were saying it takes like 60k a prisoner per year, well, more about the cost than what you said, lol. I know ive seen that number b4 as well from more than a few places. Around here i think its like 40-50k a year and im sure it varies from place to place but that got me to thinking, I live on 12,000-15,000 a year. I have to pay rent of 300 a month and a few other bills and i dont live a life of luxury by any means, but im comfortable and am satisfied with what i have. more would always be better of course but i cant complain. Well, anyway. My point is-how the fuck can it cost them that much to keep someone in a cell or in the prison in general 50k a year? death penaly cases are much worse though, on average they have twice as much spent on them per year. thats a big part of why i feel we need to set up a special court solely for death penalty appeals and that. average guy sits 15-20 yrs, thats 2 million dollars for just one person. My state doesnt have the death penalty, but no wonder why we have these prison budget issues and overcrowding. i think it must be very inneffecient w/the money for normal inmates as well.
well of course i had pretty much the same reaction that your having over hearing those numbers dark, and i had thought pretty much the same things.. $50k/ year for one inmate is just ludicrous in my eyes.. and like you said, you manage to eek by on a salary of say $20k a year, and you have to feed yourself, pay bills like the interweb thingy, and ofcourse cable tv to watch lockup on, and somehow you manage to make a life for yourself on that amount of money..
and what are we getting for our $5ok a year with these inmates?? and what do they get for all of that money?? shit, i highly doubt that they have cable tv in their cells, and same with the interweb thingy.. the food that they ate can't possibly cost more than a couple of dollars a day at most to make and prepare.. where the fuck does all that money go?? i just can't seem to add things up and come even close to a number like that.. i do understand that there are obvious costs in operating any business like rent, property tax, electricity, food, water and clothing, etc.. but it surely doesn't come any where near the fifty k..
so what does this lead me to believe?? corruption?? well, more than likely yes, that is probably a major factor in it, but it can't be the whole amount, or even a big chunk of it for that matter right??
you ever see that douche bag warden from maricopa county in az that puts up his prisoners in tent citys?? he said that it cost him like fifty cents a day to feed his inmates, and that it actually cost more to feed the guard dogs at the prison.. while this guy is a step in the right direction in cost savings, i don't really agree with many of his policies.. but for fucks sake, there has to be a way to greatly reduce the costs to house inmates.. idk.. i surely don't have any answers over that one..