NCJ Number
138820
Date Published
1992
Length
2 pages
Annotation
The costs of penal measures in England and Wales are outlined.
Abstract
The average cost of imprisonment per person totaled 386 pounds per week in England and Wales during the financial year 1990-1991. Costs ranged from 293 pounds per week for open prisons to 616 pounds per week for maximum-security dispersal prisons. The average cost for maintaining a prisoner was 321 pounds per week in the previous financial year. Costs are identified for 1990-1991 for certain other penal measures: supervision of an offender on probation, 1,070 pounds; supervision of an offender on a community service order, 920 pounds; an attendance center order, 171 pounds; placement in an approved probation/bail hostel, 6,881 pounds; and placement in a voluntary aftercare hostel, 1,600 pounds. The figures suggest that keeping an offender in prison for 3 weeks is more expensive than supervising him or her on community service for a year. The total income obtained from fines, fees, and fixed penalties collected by magistrates' courts in England and Wales in 1990-1991 totaled 269,088,000 pounds. 4 references