U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Bulletin

Justice Expenditure and Employment in
the United States, 1999



February 2002, NCJ 191746


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Sidra Lea Gifford
BJS Statistician


-------------------------------------------------------
Highlights

Federal, State, and local expenditure for
the criminal and civil justice system, 1982-99

Federal, State, and local governments 
in the United States spent $147 billion 
in fiscal year 1999 for criminal and civil 
justice.  

*  In 1999 the Federal government alone 
spent $27 billion dollars on the justice 
system. Expenditure by the Federal government 
grew faster than that for State and local 
governments (514%). The Federal government
share of justice system expenditures was 12% 
in 1982 compared with 19% in 1999. 

*  State governments spent $57 billion on
criminal and civil justice in 1999.  Sixty
percent of State spending was for corrections, 
at nearly $35 billion.  State justice expenditure 
has grown approximately 9% each year since 1982.

*  Local governments contributed the
most (51%) to the criminal and civil
justice system -- almost $75 billion. 
By far the largest component of local
expenditure was police protection, at
nearly $46 billion.

Federal, State, and local employment for
the criminal  and civil justice system,
1982-99

*  Federal, State, and local governments had 
2.2 million justice-related employees in 1999.

*  Local governments employed the most people
for justice functions, with about 1.3 million.

*  The total number of justice employees grew
72% between 1982 and 1999, the largest growth
was in State governments (107%).
------------------------------------------------------
           
In 1999 the United States spent a record
$147 billion for police protection,
corrections, and judicial and legal activities. 
The Nation's expenditure for operations
and outlay of the justice system increased
309% from almost $36 billion in 1982. 
Discounting inflation, that represents a
145% increase in constant dollars.     
             
Local governments funded more than half
of all justice system expenses.  Another
39% of justice funding came from the
States.
             
Criminal and civil justice expenditures
comprised approximately 7.7% of all State
and local public expenditures in 1999. 
Compared to justice expenditures, State and
local governments in the United States spent
almost four times as much on education, almost
twice as much on public welfare, and a roughly
equal amount on hospitals and healthcare.
             
In March of 1999 the Nation's justice system 
employed nearly 2.2 million persons, with a 
total March payroll of $7.2 billion. More than 
half of all justice employees worked at the 
local level (63% of whom worked in police 
protection). A third were State employees 
(65% in corrections). The remaining 8.7% were
Federal employees more than half of whom worked 
in police protection.

Data presented in this report are derived 
from the Justice Expenditure and Employment 
Extracts, which is compiled from the Census 
Bureau's Annual Government Finance Survey
and Annual Survey of Public Employment. The
extracts present public expenditure and
employment data pertaining to justice
activities in the United States, including 
police, judicial and legal services, and
correctional activities.
             
Trends in spending by level of 
government

Since 1982 total justice expenditures more than
quadrupled from nearly $36 billion to nearly
$147 billion.  The average annual increase for 
all levels of government between 1982 and 1999
was 8.1%.  

Expenditure on criminal and civil justice
reflected a change in responsibility.  The 
Federal government had a larger average
annual increase in justice spending from 1982
to 1999 (10.6%) than the State and local
governments (9.3% and 7.3% respectively).

Federal intergovernmental spending on justice
activities rose from $189 million in 1982 to 
more than $5.2 billion in 1999. This increase 
was due to the creation of several large grant 
programs in the 1980's and 1990's. Such programs 
include:
*  the Family Services Administration within the
Department of Health and Human Services which 
gives grants to States for child support
enforcement
*  the COPS program 
*  Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law
Enforcement Assistance Programs
*  Local Law Enforcement Block Grants.

-------------------------------------------------
Components of total expenditure

The expenditure data discussed in this Bulletin 
include direct expenditure and intergovernmental
expenditure. Intergovernmental expenditure is the 
sum of payments from one government to another,
including grants-in-aid, shared revenues, and
amounts for services performed by one government 
for another on a reimbursable or cost-sharing 
basis.   

The three levels of government in the United
States  (Federal, State, and local) have 
varying responsibilities for justice activities, 
and funds are often passed between governments 
to reflect these responsibilities.  For example, 
Federal intergovernmental expenditures include
grants to States, and State direct expenditures
will include those grants.  

Therefore, to avoid double counting the sum of
Federal, State, and local intergovernmental
expenditures, the direct expenditure is used to
calculate total expenditure for all governments.  
For 1999 the total expenditure for all governments 
was almost $147 billion.
------------------------------------------------

Between 1982 and 1999 the Federal government
increased its expenditure on police protection by
485.5%, judicial and legal services by 512.6%,
and corrections by 654.2%.  The State and local
governments had smaller increases in all
functions.

The average annual increase was highest for
corrections, ranging from a 9.4% increase per
year by the local governments to an 11.9%
increase per year by the Federal government.  

Police protection was the justice function with
the lowest annual increase.  Among State and
local governments, the average annual increase
on police protection was only about 7%.  The
Federal government expenditure for police
protection increased by about 10% annually. 

----------------------------------------------
Accounting for inflation

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), reported by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, is the most commonly 
used indicator of inflation.***Footnote 1: For 
more information about the CPI see the Bureau of
Labor Statistics Website: <http://www.bls.gov/>***  
According to the CPI, the increase in the average 
price level for all urban consumers between the 
base years of 1982-84 and 1999 was 166.6%, or an 
annual average increase of 2.9%.

To maintain consistency in reporting, the 
expenditure data discussed in this Bulletin are 
not adjusted for inflation.  However, expenditure 
on all justice functions and among all levels of
government increased at a rate greater than
inflation.  For example, if increases in total
justice expenditure were limited to the rate 
of inflation (166.6%) after 1982, expenditure 
in 1999 would have been $59.7 billion, as
opposed to the actual $146.6 billion.  

Justice expenditure relative to the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP)

A common way to express the size and growth of
government functions is the ratio of expenditure 
to the GDP or "percent GDP."***Footnote 2: For
more information about the GDP see the Bureau of
Economic Analysis website: <http://www.bea.doc.
gov>***  In 1999 the ratio of justice expenditure 
to GDP was $146.6 billion/$9,268.6 billion
(1.58%).  In 1982 the percent GDP was 1.10%.
-----------------------------------

Distribution of expenditure by level 
of government and activity

Within each category of justice activity, the
distribution of expenditure by level of
government reflects the different responsibilities
of each level:

*  Overall, local police spending represented
31.1% of the Nation's total justice expenditure,
and State corrections accounted for the second
largest portion, 23.7%.
*  Police protection is primarily a local
responsibility; accordingly, local governments
spent 69.8% of the total police protection
expenditure in the country in 1999.
*  Corrections is primarily a State responsibility,
and the State governments accounted for 62.8%
of the Nation's corrections expenditure.
*  Judicial and legal services in the United States
were funded primarily by local (43.2%) and State
(35.4%) governments. 

The Federal government spent the most on
intergovernmental grants-in-aid, shared revenues,
and amounts paid to other governments for
services performed.  About half of the Federal
intergovernmental expenditure was for police
protection, much of which were law enforcement
grants.  About half of the State and local
intergovernmental expenditures were for
corrections.

-------------------------------------------------
The justice share of State and local
expenditure

Nearly 8 cents of every dollar spent by State and
local governments in 1999 was for justice
activities.  Among all State and local expenditures, 
3.3% was for police protection, 2.8% for corrections, 
and 1.6% for judicial and legal services.

By comparison, 29.7% of State and local government 
spending went to education, 13.5% to public welfare, 
7.3% to health and hospitals, and 4.8% to interest 
on debt.

From 1977 to 1999 total State and local expenditures 
for all functions increased 401%.
*  police protection rose 411% 
*  corrections rose 946%
*  judicial and legal rose 1,518%.

Among some other government functions during
the same period--
*  education increased 370%
*  hospitals and healthcare increased 418%
*  interest on debt increased 490%
*  public welfare increased 510%.
-----------------------------------------------

Expenditures by State

Across the Nation, State and local governments
spent $442.14 per capita on justice activities. 
This ranged from $227.96 per capita in West
Virginia to $1,212.27 in the District of Columbia.

In 14 States and the District of  Columbia the per
capita expenditure was above that of the nation
as a whole.  As in 1995 (the most recent
employment and expenditure Bulletin), West
Virginia had the least per capita justice
expenditure, while New York, Alaska, and the
District of Columbia had the highest per capita
expenditure.  However, Alaska, was one of two
States in addition to the District of Columbia
whose per capita expenditure decreased after
1995.  (See Justice Expenditure and Employment
in the United States, 1995, NCJ 178235).

All State and local per capita justice expenditure
increased by 25%.  The State with the highest
increase in per capita expenditure since 1995 was
Wyoming, which increased 65%.  

In general crime rates and expenditure are
related.*The State and local per capita justice
expenditure and the average Index crime rate
for the 50 States and the District of Columbia
(not shown in the scatter plot graph) had a
correlation coefficient of 0.635.*  States with 
high crime rates tend to have higher than average 
expenditures and employment devoted to criminal 
and civil justice. These States in 1999 included 
Alaska, California, and Delaware.  Other States, 
such as North Dakota, West Virginia, and New 
Hampshire, had both low crime rates and low 
justice expenditure.

Distribution of employment by level of
government and activity

In March 1999 the Nation's civil and criminal
justice system employed over 2 million persons,
with a total March payroll of $7.2 billion. 
Relative to the entire employed population in
1999, approximately 1.6% of the Nation's labor
force worked in the justice system. (See
<http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat1.pdf>.)

Local governments accounted for more civil
and criminal justice employment than the
Federal and State governments combined. 
Of all the Nation's justice employees, 59.1%
were engaged in local justice activities.

The State and local governments employed
91.3% of all justice system workers.  The
Federal Government employed 8.7% of all
justice system employees.

The distribution of corrections employees
reflects State government dominance in that
sector -- 63.7% of corrections employees
worked for State governments, followed by
31.9% at the local level and 4.3% at the
Federal level.

Because law enforcement is essentially the
responsibility of local governments, 80% of
the Nation's police employees were working
at the local level.  State governments
employed 9.8% of police protection workers;
the Federal Government, 10.2%.

Throughout the justice system, approximately 
58.7% of expenditures were for payrolls (not 
shown in table).

The Federal government spent less on
payrolls relative to their total expenditure
($11 billion out of $27.4 billion, or 40%) 
than did the State and local governments (46.4%
and 64.8% respectively.

Police protection was the activity with the
highest percentage of expenditure going to
payrolls (64.7%).  The local governments in
particular spent 69.9% of their expenditures
for police protection on salaries. 

The activity with the lowest percentage of
expenditure for payrolls was corrections
(51.5% for all governments).

Employment by State

In all States, 12.8% of State and local
employees worked in the justice system. 
Florida had the highest percent of justice
employees relative to employees for other
government functions (17.1%), followed by
the District of Columbia. In 1999 Florida and
the District of Columbia had the highest rates
of index crimes in the Nation (see Crime in
the United States, 1999, FBI).

The States with the lowest percentage of
justice employees were West Virginia and
North Dakota (less than 8% of all employees).  
These two States consistently have among the 
lowest crime rates in the country.

California had the most State and local
employees (1.6 million) and the most
employees in the justice system (over
220,000).  Vermont was the State with the
fewest employees in State and local
government for justice (fewer than 3,000)
and for all functions (approximately 34,000).

Per capita justice employment of all State and
local governments was about 67 per 10,000
resident population in 1999.  Per capita
employment was lowest in West Virginia, where
there were 40 full-time equivalent justice
employees per 10,000 residents, and highest in
the District of Columbia where there were nearly
140 employees per 10,000 residents.  

Vermont had the fewest State and local sworn
police per capita, with 15.5 per 10,000 residents. 
In the District of Columbia, there were 65.6
sworn State or local police officers per 10,000
residents.  The District of Columbia also had the
most State and local corrections employees (54.4
per 10,000 residents) followed by Texas (32.8)
and New York (32.4).  However, the District of
Columbia had the fewest State and local
employees in judicial and legal services (6.5)
while New Jersey had the most (24.4 per 10,000
residents). 

-------------------------------------------------
Expansion of Nation's justice system, 1982-99 

The increase in justice expenditures over nearly
20 years reflects the expansion of the Nation's
criminal justice system.  For example, in 1982
the justice system employed approximately 1.27
million persons; in 1999 it reached over 2
million. 

Police protection

One indicator of police workload, the FBI's arrest 
estimates for State and local police agencies, grew 
from 12 million in 1982 to an estimated 14 million 
in 1999.***Footnote a: Crime in the United States,
1982 (FBI, 1983) and 1999 (FBI, 2000).***  The number 
of employees in police protection increased from
approximately  724,000 to over 1 million.  

Judicial and legal 

The judicial and legal workload, including civil
and criminal cases, prosecutor functions, and
public defender services also expanded during
this period.  Cases filed in general and limited
jurisdiction State courts went from about 86
million to 91 million in the 15-year period,
1984-99.***Footnote b: Examining the Work of State
Courts, 1999-2000 (National Center for State Courts,
2001).***  The juvenile court workload also
expanded from 1 million delinquency cases in
1982 to 1.8 million in 1998.***Footnote c: OJJDP
Statistical Briefing Book (OJJDP, 2001).***  The 
total of judicial and legal employees grew about 84% 
to 455,000 persons in 1999.  

Corrections

The total number of State and Federal inmates
grew from 400,000 in 1982 to nearly 1,300,000
in 1999.***Footnote d: Sourcebook of Criminal 
Justice Statistics, 2000, NCJ 190251.***  This 
was accompanied by the opening of over 600 
State***Footnote e: Prisoners in 2000, NCJ 188207
(BJS Bulletin, 2001), and 1984 Census of State
Adult Correctional Facilities, NCJ 105585 (BJS 
report, 1987).*** and at least 51 Federal
correctional facilities.***Footnote d: Sourcebook
of Criminal Justice Statistics, 2000 NCJ 190251.***
The number of local jail inmates also tripled, from 
approximately 200,000 in 1982 to 600,000 in 
1999.***Footnote d: Sourcebook of Criminal Justice 
Statistics, 2000, NCJ 190251.***  Adults on
probation increased from over 1.3 to nearly 3.8
million persons.***Footnote d: Sourcebook of 
Criminal Justice Statistics, 2000, NCJ 190251.***
Overall corrections employment more than doubled 
from nearly 300,000 to over 716,000 during this 
period.
---------------------------------------------------

Definition of terms

Expenditure includes only external cash
payments made from any source of moneys,
including any payments financed from
borrowing, fund balances, intergovernmental
revenue, and other current revenue.  It excludes
any intragovernmental transfers and noncash
transactions, such as the provision of meals or
housing of employees.  It also excludes
retirement of debt, investment in securities,
extensions of loans, or agency transactions. 
Total expenditures for all government functions
do include interest payments on debt, but the
justice expenditure data do not.

Expenditure is divided into two major 
categories

*  Direct expenditure is all expenditure except
that classified as intergovernmental. It includes
"direct current expenditure" (salaries, wages,
fees, and commissions and purchases of supplies,
materials, and contractual services) and "capital
outlays" (construction and purchase of
equipment, land, and existing structures). 
Capital outlays are included for the year 
when the direct expenditure is made, regardless 
of how the funds are raised (for example, by 
bond issue) or when they are paid back.
*  Intergovernmental expenditure is the sum of
payments from one government to another,
including grants-in-aid, shared revenues,
payments in lieu of taxes, and amounts for
services performed by one government for an-
other on a reimbursable or cost-sharing basis 
(for example, payments by one government to
another for boarding prisoners). It excludes
amounts paid to other governments for purchase
of commodities, property, or utility services.

Employees are all persons on government
payrolls during the pay period including March
15, 1999.  They include all paid officials and
persons on paid leave, but exclude unpaid
officials, persons on unpaid leave, pensioners,
and contractors. 

Full-time employees are all persons employed 
on a full-time basis, including all full-time
temporary or seasonal workers who were
employed during this pay period.

Full-time equivalent employment (FTE) is a
statistical measure that estimates the number 
of full-time employees that could have been
employed if the reported number of hours
worked by part-time employees had been worked
by full-time employees.  This statistic is
calculated separately for each function of a
government by dividing the "part-time hours
paid" by the standard number of hours for
full-time employees in the particular government
and then adding the resulting quotient to the
number of full-time employees.  

Payroll is the gross 1-month payroll before
deductions and includes salaries, wages, fees, 
and commissions paid to employees as defined above
for March 1999.

Police protection is the function of enforcing the
law, preserving order, and apprehending those
who violate the law, whether these activities 
are performed by a city police department, 
sheriff's department, State police, or Federal 
law enforcement agency such as the FBI and the
Drug Enforcement Administration.  Private
security police are outside the scope of the
survey.

Judicial and legal services includes all civil 
and criminal courts and activities associated 
with courts such as law libraries, grand juries, 
petit juries, medical and social service activities, 
court reporters, judicial councils, bailiffs, and 
probate functions.  It also includes the civil and 
criminal justice activities of the attorneys general, 
district attorneys, State's attorneys, and their 
variously named equivalents and corporation counsels,
solicitors, and legal departments with various
names.  It excludes legal units of noncriminal
justice agencies, whose functions may be
performed by a legal services department in other
jurisdictions (such as a county counsel). 

Corrections involves the confinement and
rehabilitation of adults and juveniles convicted of
offenses against the law and the confinement of
persons suspected of a crime awaiting trial or
adjudication.  It includes the costs of operation
and employment for jails, prisons, probation,
parole, pardon, and correctional administration. 
Data for institutions with authority to hold
prisoners beyond arraignment (usually 48 hours
or more) are included in this sector.  Data for
lockups or "tanks" holding prisoners less than 48
hours are included in "police protection."

Methodology

The justice data in this report include the
expenditures and employment of the Federal
Government, the State governments, and a
sample of county, municipal, and township
governments.  Unless otherwise noted, data for
total governmental functions and non-justice
governmental functions also include the
expenditures of special districts and school
districts, which generally do not have justice
functions.

This report is based on a compilation of data
from the Census Bureau's annual surveys of
governmental finances and employment.  The
survey sample was selected from the 1997
Census of Local Governments and consists of
large units of government (including all 50
States) sampled with certainty and smaller units
selected with a probability proportional to the
unit's expenditure.  The total number of local
governments in the finance sample was 13,480,
and the number of local governments in the
employment sample was 10,574.

Certain limitations reflect the fact that the
surveys from which this Bulletin was extracted
are not designed to obtain data on specific justice
functions.  The sampling variability, or "standard
error" for each of the justice activities is likely 
to be larger than for the major categories that the
surveys were designed to estimate.  Similarly, the
standard error is likely to be greater for local
governments than for State-local aggregates
which are sampled in part, with certainty. 
Specific standard errors can be found on the
Census Bureau's website (www.census.gov).
  
Differences in functional responsibilities from
State to State and government to government can
affect the comparability of expenditure and
employment data.  Readers should be generally
cautious in comparing governmental expenditures 
because of this variation in the division of 
responsibilities.  

The data in this report differ in some cases from
those previously published in the Census
Bureau's finance and employment survey reports
because of definitional differences and the more
intensive review procedures and data refinements
used for this compilation.  

The data here differ from other BJS series which
collect agency-based employment and expenditure 
data because of collection methods, units of 
analysis, and data collection purposes.  
These include --

Law Enforcement Management and Administrative 
Statistics, Prosecutors in State Courts and 
various court statistics series, The Census of 
Local Jails, The Census of State and Federal 
Correctional Facilities, and the report State 
Prison Expenditures, 1996.

Financial data for the Federal Government
were extracted from The Budget of the United
States Government, FY 2001, Appendix.  The
historical finance data may differ slightly from
the justice expenditure data found in the
Expenditure and Employment Extracts because
of definitional differences. 

Federal Government civilian employment data
were obtained from the U.S. Office of Personnel
Management.  Statistics for State and local
governments were obtained by a mail survey
including all State departments, agencies, and
institutions, and a local central reporting office
supplemented by special mailings.

Trend comparisons between the data in this
report and reports covering data for 1971-79,
1985, 1988, and 1990 from the Justice
Expenditure and Employment survey series are
complicated by differences in methodology. 
These differences are described in the BJS
reports for these years, and on the BJS website. 
In making trend comparisons, users should limit
their analysis to one of the two sources:
*  long-term trends for 1971-79, 1985, 1988, and
1990 from the Justice Expenditure and
Employment survey series
*  recent year-to-year trends from the
1980-99 Justice Expenditure and
Employment Extracts data.
             
A more detailed description of the survey
methodology (including sample design and
sampling errors) can be found in the Justice
Expenditure and Employment Extracts at
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs.

------------------------------------------
The Bureau of Justice Statistics is the
statistical agency of the U.S. Department of
Justice.  Lawrence A. Greenfeld is deputy 
director.

BJS Bulletins present the first release of
findings from permanent data collection
programs.

Sidra Lea Gifford wrote this report under the
supervision of Steven K. Smith.  Greg
Steadman provided statistical review.  Tina
Dorsey and Tom Hester produced and edited
the report.  Jayne Robinson prepared the
report for publication.

The data extraction, editing and tabulation for
the 1999 Justice Expenditure and
Employment Extracts were performed at the
U.S. Bureau of the Census by Steven D.
Owens. 

February 2002, NCJ 185673
----------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------
This report and others from the Bureau of
Justice Statistics are available through the
Internet --

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/

The data from the Justice Expenditure and
Employment Extracts are available from
the National Archive of Criminal Justice
Data, maintained by the Institute for Social
Research at the University of Michigan,
1-800-999-0960. The archive may also be
accessed through the BJS Internet site.
-------------------------------------------------

End of file
02/06/02 ih