Corrections, Reentry, and Community Supervision

John Roman's testimony before the Judiciary Committee of the State of Delaware Senate on the cost to a state of having the death penalty.

In many cities and counties, inmate health care comprises as much as a third of the cost of the corrections department. Options are presented on ways to substantially reduce the costs without reducing the quality of the care. We drew on practices of jails and prison across the nation. The approaches for cost reduction include ways to reduce demand or need for health care (e.g., screening need for hospitalization), and ways to reduce the cost per inmate when care is need (e.g. use of telemedicine.)

The federal prison population exceeds 218,000, a tenfold increase since 1980. This massive growth is projected to continue and is accompanied by increasing costs, which account for 25% of the Department of Justice's budget and edge out other important public safety priorities. This brief describes the main drivers of the federal prison population, half of whom are drug offenders. Front-end decisions about who goes to prison and for how long have the greatest impact, suggesting that reductions in sentence lengths -particularly for drug offenders - can most directly contain future growth. "Back-end" changes, such as increasing earned credits for early release, can also help alleviate the pressure. The federal system can learn much from state efforts to contain prison populations and costs; doing so will require the cooperation and support of numerous players across all branches of the federal system.

Growth in the size of the federal prison population over the past decade is largely driven by increases in time served, and particularly by longer lengths of stay for drug offenders. This research report, which examines changes in the federal Bureau of Prison's population from 1998 to 2010, also notes that a higher conviction rate in drug cases and heightened enforcement of immigration and weapon offenses contribute to prison population growth. This growth was moderated by reductions in the rate at which sentenced offenders were admitted to prison and modest declines in the federal prosecution rate. Report findings were based on a statistical decomposition analysis using data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics' Federal Justice Statistics Program.

A new report by the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center highlights the increasing size of the federal prison system, leading to unsustainable cost growth and more dangerous conditions inside prison walls. The increased costs of incarceration also run the risk of edging out support for other important public safety priorities.

This evaluation of the Transition from Prison to the Community (TPC) initiative found improved collaboration among participating state agencies and their service provider partners and identified enhanced efforts to employ risk/needs assessments, assess program quality, and monitor performance. Developed and funded by the National Institute of Corrections (NIC), TPC provided states with support and guidance in preparing prisoners for release, facilitating their transition to the community, and overcoming barriers to reintegration.

This cost-benefit analysis of implementing a Functional Family Therapy (FFT) program in the District of Columbia indicates that the benefits are likely to outweigh the costs. The analysis employed an innovative statistical method that enables policymakers to assess the range of possible costs and benefits associated with specific evidence-based programs designed to prevent crime and recidivism. Results indicate that there is a 66 percent chance that an FFT program serving 150 juveniles will yield benefits exceeding its costs.

This policy brief summarizes the second DCPI cost-benefit analysis employing an innovative statistical method that enables policymakers to assess the range of possible costs and benefits associated with specific evidence-based programs designed to prevent crime and recidivism. This particular study forecasted the costs and benefits of implementing an Electronic Monitoring program in the District. The analysis found an 80 percent chance that an EM program serving 800 people will yield benefits exceeding its costs.