A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you're talking real money!

 

.01%

http://www.lrc.ky.gov/lrcpubs/rr373.pdf

 

$384,336,582 in incarceration expenses in 2009. Can't find cost savings there? Oh wait, much of that expense is spent on commercial prison systems that make political donations! And you wonder why we have millions of people, from diverse political spectrums, ready to take up arms against government!

 

 

Cost of Corrections

Although Kentucky’s corrections cost is high, it compared favorably to the costs in nine other

states with similar numbers of inmates in FY 2007, the last year for which cost information was

available for all the states. Kentucky spent 2.4 percent of its budget that year on corrections,

second lowest among the 10 states. The national average was 3.4 percent.

The table below indicates for FY 2009, for each type of correctional facility that houses state

inmates, the number of facilities, number of state inmates, percentage of state inmates, cost to the

department, and percentage of total cost.

Type of Facility, Average Number and Percentage of Inmates, and Total Cost

Fiscal Year 2009

Type of Facility Facilities

Average #

of State

Inmates

% of

State

Inmates

Cost to

Department

% of

Total

Cost

State prison 13 12,106 53.6% $245,853,282 64.0%

Contracted prison 3 1,234 5.5 20,576,868 5.3

Local and regional jail 76 7,613 33.8 100,751,274 26.2

Contracted halfway house 20 1,348 6.0 16,039,920 4.2

Home incarceration N/A 252 1.1 1,115,238 0.3

Total 112 22,553 100.0% $384,336,582 100.0%

Note: The cost column includes amounts paid by the department to medical providers for care of state inmates in

contracted prisons and local and regional jails. It does not include local jail allotments, which are general funds

provided for general-purpose jail support. Some halfway house contractors have more than one facility housing

state inmates.

N/A indicates that persons on home incarceration are not housed in facilities but are monitored electronically.

Source: Prepared by Program Review staff from information provided by the Department of Corrections.

http://www.lrc.ky.gov/lrcpubs/rr373.pdf

 

$384,336,582 in incarceration expenses in 2009. Can't find cost savings there? Oh wait, much of that expense is spent on commercial prison systems that make political donations! And you wonder why we have millions of people, from diverse political spectrums, ready to take up arms against government!

 

Cost of Corrections

Although Kentucky’s corrections cost is high, it compared favorably to the costs in nine other states with similar numbers of inmates in FY 2007, the last year for which cost information was available for all the states. Kentucky spent 2.4 percent of its budget that year on corrections, second lowest among the 10 states. The national average was 3.4 percent.

The table below indicates for FY 2009, for each type of correctional facility that houses state

inmates, the number of facilities, number of state inmates, percentage of state inmates, cost to the

department, and percentage of total cost.

Type of Facility, Average Number and Percentage of Inmates, and Total Cost

Fiscal Year 2009

 

State prison 13 12,106 53.6% $245,853,282 64.0%

Contracted prison 3 1,234 5.5 $20,576,868 5.3

Local and regional jail 76 7,613 33.8 100,751,274 26.2

Contracted halfway house 20 1,348 6.0 16,039,920 4.2

Home incarceration N/A 252 1.1 1,115,238 0.3

Total 112 22,553 100.0% $384,336,582 100.0%

 

5% is Much? By your own numbers commercial prisons account for less than 6% of the total budget. Kind of a stretch to say they are controlling the state corrections budget and that is why cuts aren't being made. Oh but wait, Corrections just like every other department in Kentucky is being asked to cut 4% of their budget also. Even though as shown by your supplied figures it would seem Kentucky Corrections expenses are very low compared to other comparable states and compared to an average of all states.

 

I know it's all the rage to blame all corrections issues on Commercial Prisons, but in Kentucky at least they are a very very small piece of the overall puzzle.