Money spent on prisons not adding up

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December 18, 2009 • Troy Madison  
Filed under National News, Opinion

Should more or less money be spent on our prisons? It’s no secret that California has been in huge debt, and will be for quite some time to come. A proposal from the governor states, “The governor wants to reduce the inmate population by 35,000, including 22,000 who would be let out of prison 20 months early over the next two years. No inmate who has committed a serious or violent felony or a crime involving a sex offense would be freed early. Other inmates would be released under other programs, including 6,250 lower-risk inmates who would be placed on “summary” parole, under which they would still be subject to drug testing and searches by police but could not be returned to prison for technical parole violations unless they were prosecuted locally. Some 6,000 prison jobs would be cut, including 2,000 guards through layoffs.” My opinion is that we should spend less money on prisons because they are taking money away from necessary and important things like education.

Education is one of the most important factors in order for Americans to create a good future for our society. With our California budget already doing so poorly, it should not be our top priority to be improving prisons. Due to the debt, public education is being decimated. According to a recent report in the LA Times, “In late May, Governor Schwarzenegger announced revisions to his May budget proposal that include $1.6 billion in cuts to the state’s education system for the 2008-2009 school year and $4.2 billion in cuts for 2009-2010. These reductions in spending, coming on top of $11.6 billion in cuts already passed by the state government this year, will make California the last state in the US in terms of funding-per-pupil. They translate to roughly $3,000 in less money for every student in the state.” School districts across the state will be forced to delay funds for textbooks, increase class sizes, and cut seven days off the school year. Many districts are on the brink of insolvency. Arts and music programs, physical education courses, summer school, advanced placement, special education, and other vital courses will be eliminated as a result of the new round of cuts. Since 1984, California has built nearly 30 new prisons. In that time we have only opened FOUR new 4-year colleges: UC Merced, CSU San Marcos, CSU Monterey Bay, and CSU Channel Islands. In the case of the latter two institutions, those were reconverted from other government facilities.

This is significant because the costs of starting a new prison and starting a new college campus are roughly equivalent. Similar facilities costs. Similar labor costs. No, scratch that – the average starting salary of a full-time CSU professor is LESS than the average starting salary of a full-time prison guard. The reason prisons cost so much is simply because prisoners are housed 24 hrs/day. Also, schools are not required to pay every single medical bill for their students. As the costs for fixing the state’s troubled corrections system rocket higher, California is headed for a dubious milestone — for the first time the state will spend more on incarcerating inmates than on educating students in its public universities. Based on current spending trends, California’s prison budget will overtake spending on the state’s universities in five years. No other big state in the country spends close to as much on its prisons compared with universities. It doesn’t matter the size of our state. What matters is how much debt we are in. If we take away money from prisons and not schools then society would see the positive results of our increased spending on education. A  way to lessen the burden taxpayers carry for supporting prisons is the expansion of Community Corrections, or probation. This way, low-security inmates can be electronically monitored and have restrictions, while still being able to be a taxpayer and member of a working society and still pay their own bills. Some community corrections programs cost under $10 a day per inmate to support. A lot less money should be spent on prisons! Using money to comfort prisoners instead of support students is showing how important American people, who have the power to decide where our money goes, are not really thinking about the future of America.

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