$19,000 per inmate cost per year. Should only prisoners pay for their own incarceration or should taxpayer?

Question

http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/statsbrief/cost.html

Answer 1

This is a tough one but i think still the tax payers.
But i think ONLY THOSE WHO SUPPORT A ILLEGAL WAR should also pay a war tax.

Answer 2

NO!!Keep it the way it is!! Both the taxpayer and prisoner will pay for incarceration and other services that the prison provides!!

Answer 3

Most prisoners couldn't pay for their own lawyer let alone their incarceration costs.

If they could pay for a decent lawyer rather than getting a public pretender they would have a better chance of not being in prison in the first place.

Answer 4

We could stop the War On Drugs and save 80% on prisons, enforcement and legal costs to the taxpayer.
Drug addiction is a medical matter not a criminal matter. The same as women have the right to kill fetuses if people want to kill themselves or ruin their lives make them pay for their treatment instead of putting them in jail.
The War On Drugs keeps drug prices very high making it very profitable for gangs, maffia and even terrorists.
Our laws are benefitting criminal elements. We are unable to control criminal elements cause they have a very good source of income from trafficking made possible by our law enforcement which is completely ineffective to block traficking and it acts instead as a subsidy to criminals.
80% of prisoners are there for drug related charges, 80% of murders are drug related BECAUSE DRUGS ARE ILLEGAL AND THERE ARE TURF WARS. How many people are killed over a bottle of whiskey? However during the 30's gang wars over alcohol were rampant. DO YOU GET IT?

Answer 5

Of course they can earn enough, right? The jobs that could be done by law abiding citizens given to scum so somebody saves money due to their greed. Sounds like a great con idea. The logistics of keeping track of each inmate and what he earns etc. could cost more in the long run than what we have now.

Answer 6

Maybe we should think of more productive ways to deal with prisoners. Especially drug addicts who don't actually hurt or threaten anyone.

BTW your $19,000 seems too low to me. I've seen numbers that range in the $40-60 k per year range.

Answer 7

Thats sounds like a lot of money considering what inmates get .
A shared room . a shared toilet , meals that cost under a dollar 3 times a day for a total cost of less then 1500 dollars per inmate per year . Package of bologna Oscar Mayer all beef thick slice $3.99---- Loaf of bakery fresh bread $3.00 mustard/mayo packs .05 cents . Slices of meat 12 slices of bread 24 number of sandwiches 12 total cost to feed 12 inmates lunch with a .25 cent bag of chips under a dollar .
Dozen eggs ,toast ,milk fresh fruit under $1.00
Total cost to feed inmates is under 4 dollars a day . Showers cost less then a dollar per man per day . Laundry service less then a dollar you add it up . Inmates get less then $10 dollars a day spent on housing them . Thats under $4000.00 per year . 10x10 concrete room that lasts 50 years costs less then $300 dollars a year . Thats assuming a cost of 15,000 dollars to build a concrete block cell with Steel gate and one overhead light, toilet and sink combo with built in bunk rack . Houses two inmates So the cost of inmates is low .
How ever the cost of watching them is high . 3 shifts a day

I say have the convicts guard themselves . Save some loot .

Answer 8

Prisoners should pay. Its there own fault they are in prison so they should pay for it. The county where I live in makes its prisoners pay $18/day for being incarcerated.

Answer 9

I definitely agree that prisoners should pay for being in jail. I remember my teacher of History class used to tell me. He said" If I was a homeless person, I would somehow get myself in jail so that I can get three meals a day and with all other benefits".

Answer 10

Cut expenses by putting fewer people in prison.

Answer 11

Taxpayers who support locking up people for insignificant offenses, such as drug crimes, should pay for it because that is why our prisons are overcrowded.
...and the prisoners would pay with what?