The Price of Mass Incarceration

by Lauren Boyer

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With a national debt of $36.58 trillion, many people worry about government overspending. One slogan that has been cropping up in recent years is to “defund the police.” At first glance, it’s a call that seems anarchic. Most people would acknowledge the need for a justice system. To those outside of it, prison is a symbol of safety and order. To those within, it represents isolation and entrapment. Even worse, for many people, correctional facilities remind them of state-issued murder and human rights atrocities. But does it have to be the way it is now? A closer look at the criminal justice system suggests that there might be a reason for investigating its profits. 

And what does this investigation reveal? It tells us that mass incarceration is expensive. It tells us that of the $182 billion annual profit of the criminal justice system, nearly 50% of the money spent on running the justice system ends up in the pockets of staff. So staff financial interest is not for reform, it’s for mass incarceration. And unless the system changes, it will continue to work against itself. As Lincoln once said, “a house divided cannot stand.” 

The first step to ending the divided financial interest driving the criminal justice industry is accountability. The disparities only grow upon closer examination. It can cost families up to $24.95 for a 15-minute call with their loved one. Not only are many of the families of the incarcerated injured by the loss of a provider and loved one, but statistics show they contribute $2.9 billion to the system. Another discrepancy is that private companies who provide goods or phone calls to prisons make roughly the same amount of money as the companies who operate private prisons. The equivalence is troubling and borders on unethical. Prisoners and the families that support them are being overcharged for their comfort and peace of mind. It’s exploitation, and it’s unchecked. 

Further financial injustice lies in the comparative little spent on public defenders — whose work is required by the constitution. The government doesn’t seem to take the right to a fair trial seriously when they put $5.8 billion toward prosecution and only $4.5 billion toward indigent defense. Public defenders are paid less while handling a greater caseload, making it harder to give their cases all the time and careful study they require. Despite growing caseloads, the money funding indigent defense is dwindling. 

With $182 billion spent each year, the results shouldn’t be what they are. We must conclude the criminal justice system is long overdue for an audit. Perhaps instead of paying telephone companies over a billion dollars, we should hire more accountants and investigators. The system may be a tangled one, varying federal to state to local, but it is an important one responsible for many lives. It’s only right that the interests of the empowered be not in their pocketbook, but with the people they are responsible for — the inmates.