NCJ Number
176643
Date Published
1998
Length
5 pages
Annotation
New York State is following the trend in other States of expanding corrections at the expense of other worthwhile social programs such as higher education.
Abstract
New York State is spending almost twice what it did to run its prisons in 1988. Funding for prisons has increased in recent years by 76 percent, while public universities have seen their operating budgets plummet by 29 percent. Government funding decisions have exacerbated the gap between corrections spending and higher education. At the same time, the number of violent offenders entering the prison system is declining. Half of the 20,800 persons imprisoned in 1997 were arrested for drug offenses, and there are now about 9,000 drug offenders serving time under the Rockefeller Drug Laws at a cost of $265 million a year. Each inmate held under these laws costs New York State $30,000 a year to keep behind bars. Yet, most residential drug treatment programs cost less than $20,000 per participant a year, and some outpatient programs cost just $2,700 a year. The authors recommend that the Rockefeller Drug Laws be abolished and that ineffective mandatory sentencing schemes be eliminated so that a high-quality, affordable higher education can be provided to New York State residents. 8 footnotes and 1 table