With 2.2 million inmates, America has more prisoners behind bars than any other country on earth. We now have 25 percent of the world's incarcerated, with just five percent of the population. Among prisoners, 35 percent are drug addicts; 80 percent are drug users. One study found that 34 percent of drug users return to state prison within a year In 2001, the average cost per inmate in state prisons is $22,650 per year or $62.05 a day. The taxpayer price tag is twice as much as just 15 years ago.
Breaking The Law Sexual Harrassment Disobeying Public Rules Theft Drunk Driving Man-slaughter Speeding Illegal Immigration Murder Child Pornography Stautory Rape Illegal Drugs
Inmates in America’s prisons and jails aren’t evenly divided by race; African Americans make up just 13 percent of the U.S. population but 41 percent of the overall prison population. And Hispanics have 2.5 times the rate of imprisonment of non-Hispanic whites. More than half of male inmates and roughly two-thirds of female inmates have symptoms of a serious mental illness. The largest population of the mentally ill in America isn’t housed in a hospital… It’s in Los Angeles County Jail, followed by New York’s Rikers Island. In all, one-fourth of all state prison beds are occupied by the mentally ill. More than 80,000 inmates are kept in isolation nationwide. The average stay in some states is now years.
State prisons are generally funded by state taxes and conditional appropriations provided by federal authorities. Federal prisons are, of course, funded by federal taxes and appropriations provided by congress. In some cases, one jurisdiction of jails/prisons may detain prisoners on behalf of another jurisdiction, (i.e. a county jail may house state prisoners because of overcrowding, etc.). Prisons are funded by state or federal taxes. Some jurisdictions which participate in prison industries and/or work release programs will require that the prisoners themselves pay for a portion of their incarceration.