Money And Rights Flushed Down The Drain: NJ Prisons

With NJ already being in debt and scrambling to try to scrape up every cent it can get out of the tax payers, Gov. Corzine is starting to look at closing prisons. Right now the state of NJ has a budget set aside of $1.3 billion for the Corrections Department. We currently imprison 25,359 people in NJ, 23% are non-violent offenders and 32% are drug offenders. This means that over half (55%) of the prison population has not done anything to physically harm anyone else. And it costs the state $34,600 per prisoner annually. So lets break the numbers down:

- $1.3 billion in NJ budget for prisons.
- 25,359 prisoners in NJ.
- $34,600 equals cost per prisoner annually.
- 55% of the prisoners are non-violent offenders.

Now lets take it a bit further

- 55% of 25,359 prisoners equals about 13,947
- 13,947 times $34,600 (annual cost per prisoner) equals $482,566,200.
- It will cost the state of NJ $482,566,200 to keep all the non-violent offenders in prison, including the drug offenders who may be guilty of nothing but possession.

It seems like there is something we can do here to help our budget crisis and protect the rights of our citizens. Perhaps drug offenders need help rather than imprisonment (where there are more drugs!). And maybe non-violent offenders can pay for their crimes another way besides eating up the tax payers money (community service, wage garnishments, paying restitution). I am not saying open the doors and let everyone loose. It must be analyzed on a case by case basis. But something must be done.

You can find the article I drew the numbers from here.