How Do Economics & Interest Groups Come in to Play?Prison in America costs around $182 billion a year not including private prisons, and adding in rehabilitation programs would just add more to that already huge cost. The average cost of a inmate per year in Norway is $120,000 versus the US average of $42,727 (Huffington Post). So how does creating rehabilitation programs make sense financially?
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It Is All About Rerouting and Investment Versus Payoff
The idea here is to reduce the costs of prison by reducing the number of prisoners that are present. Reducing the prison population by let say 10% would free up around $18.2 billion a year. This money should then be used not to just throw away but to invest more into the prison population that is left. The requirement here is that there is an initial investment to get rehabilitation programs off of the ground. The promise being that the states that do these programs would save money by not admitting prisoners again after release. And another investment that would get these programs off would be to offer incentives for the states that take part in them.
Take programs like PEP and expand them to the states and offer them intensives for implementing the programs effectively. This initial cost would be hard to get passed, but if it did even on a very very small scale would have a giant effect due to the sheer amount of money being spent every year.
Take programs like PEP and expand them to the states and offer them intensives for implementing the programs effectively. This initial cost would be hard to get passed, but if it did even on a very very small scale would have a giant effect due to the sheer amount of money being spent every year.
Set Backs
The obvious push back here would be special interest groups that are in the system for the profits. To reduce the need of their products due to the reduced population is terrifying to these companies. So why should they allow for these laws to pass?
A second push back might even be from the guards and persons who work for these prisons. If the populations decrease they may eventually be out of work.
So what is the response? The money stays around for the most part. These companies shouldn't be too scared. The creation of the new programs would allow for the money to still be spent but just in a more effective way for the prisoners. Eventually yes these companies may need to worry, but other companies that better fit the new models would be more than happy to take their place.
A second push back might even be from the guards and persons who work for these prisons. If the populations decrease they may eventually be out of work.
So what is the response? The money stays around for the most part. These companies shouldn't be too scared. The creation of the new programs would allow for the money to still be spent but just in a more effective way for the prisoners. Eventually yes these companies may need to worry, but other companies that better fit the new models would be more than happy to take their place.