Price of Punishment - Public Spending for Corrections in New York

• NCJ Number: 71066
• Author(s): D McDonald
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 180 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation; North Shore Unitarian Veatch Program
• Corporate Author: Citizens' Inquiry on Parole and Criminal Justice, Inc; Correctional Assoc of New York
• Sale Source: Westview Press, Inc
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Westview special studies in contemporary social issues

Annotation

To help citizens and public officials understand the costs of the criminal justice system, this study analyzes criminal justice spending in New York from 1977-78, and evaluates services provided by these public expenditures.

Abstract

Enormous amounts of money are spent by government agencies for criminal justice and corrections without adequate cost accounting. Even the most basic costs of these agencies have been unavailable to the public. This lack of information is largely due to inadequate reporting and the lack of uniform accounting standards. The primary focus of this report is on the cost of the postconviction stages of New York's adult criminal justice system; prison, parole, jails, and probation. Expenditure information was examined for criminal justice and corrections agencies operated by the State government, by New York City, and by three counties: Westchester, Rockland, and Rensselaer. To identify all corrections-related costs, visits were made to three State prisons to jails in New York City, and to the three counties. Interviews were held with hundreds of public officials who supplied expenditure and budget data and descriptions of how monies were spent, and who assisted in developing estimates where the existing information was incomplete. The study provides an overview of corrections and criminal justice costs in New York, and a discussion of the New York State prison system costs, including the costs of parole, probation, and incarceration. The study found that almost 10 percent of all government spending in New York during fiscal 1977-78 was directed toward the criminal justice system. Only public education and social services cost the taxpayer more. Recommendations for reform include the requirements that public criminal justice agencies issue comprehensive annual reports, that corrections agencies justify their budgets by demonstrating the benefits of their services, and that alternatives be developed to expensive pretrial detention. Tables, figures, footnotes, and extensive chapter notes are provided.