Nationwide Corrections Spending

Thanks to Sentencing Law and Policy for pointing out this thorough report on corrections spending nationwide. A good state by state analysis on what folks are doing.

• Corrections Expenditures in FY 2006
• Corrections Appropriations in FY 2007
• Budget Overruns in FY 2007
• Looking Ahead

For most states, corrections funding represents a relatively small portion of the budget, on average accounting for about 6 percent of general fund spending. But even 6 percent represents a lot of money: States spent nearly $35.6 billion on corrections in fiscal year (FY) 2006 and budgeted $37.6 billion for FY 2007. Mounting pressures will continue to boost corrections spending. States point to escalating inmate health care costs, overcrowded prisons and rising personnel expenses as principal drivers. These and other factors help explain state funding growth in FY 2006 and FY 2007.

Corrections Expenditures in FY 2006

Nationally, FY 2006 general fund corrections spending grew 10 percent above FY 2005 levels. This was the fastest growing category of the four spending areas that NCSL tracks in its State Budget Actions reports and well above what policymakers expected: they had budgeted corrections to grow 4.1 percen
NCSL