Lynn Bauer

BJS Statistician

Steven D. Owens

Chief, Public Finance Analysis Branch

U.S. Census Bureau

In 2001 the United States spent a

record $167 billion for police protection,

corrections, and judicial and legal

activities. The Nationís expenditure 

for operations and outlays for the

justice system increased 366% from

almost $36 billion in 1982 (a 165%

increase in constant dollars). 

Local governments funded nearly half

of all direct justice system expenses.

Another 35% of direct justice funding

came from the States. Criminal and

civil justice expenditures comprised

approximately 7% of all State and local

public expenditures in 2001.1

Compared to justice expenditures,

State and local governments in the

United States spent almost 4 times as

much on education, almost twice as

much on public welfare, and a roughly

equal amount on hospitals and healthcare. (See figure on page 4.)

In March of 2001 the Nationís justice

system employed nearly 2.3 million

persons, with a total March payroll of

$8.1 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

(64% in corrections). The remaining 

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Bureau of Justice Statistics

Bulletin

 May 2004, NCJ 202792

Expenditure for justice functions varies by level of government

In fiscal year 2001 States spent $38.4 billion for corrections. Local 

governments spent the most for police functions ó$50.7 billion.

The total number of justice employees grew 81% between 1982 

and 2001, with State governments having the largest percentage

increase (117%)

Police

and legal

Corrections

Total expenditure, in billions

0 $10 $20 $30 $40 $50 $60

Federal

State

Judicial

Local

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

Employees

 81%

 63%

117%

109%

Total justice

Local

State

Federal

Percent

growth,

1982-2001

1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2001

Justice Expenditure and Employment

in the United States, 2001

1

For definitions of terms, see page 8. 
9% were Federal employees, of whom

more than half worked in police

protection.

Data presented in this report are

derived from the Justice Expenditure

and Employment Extracts, compiled

from the U.S. 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 over $167 billion, a 366%

increase. The average annual increase

for all levels of government between

1982 and 2001 was 8% (table 1).

Between 1982 and 2001, per capita

expenditure, including Federal, State,

and local governments across justice

functions, increased from $158 to

$586, approximately 271% (figure 1

and Appendix table, page 8). During

the same time period, corrections had

the largest increase from $39 to $200

(over 400%) per U.S. resident. Per

capita expenditure for judicial and legal

services increased from $34 to $132

(288%) followed by police protection, $84

to $254 or 202%.

The total justice expenditure reflected

the Federal Governmentís expanded

role as it had a larger average annual

increase in justice spending from 1982

to 2001 (11%) than the State and local

governments (9% and 7%,

respectively). 

Federal intergovernmental spending on

justice activities rose from $189 million

in 1982 to more than $5.2 billion in

2001. This increase was due to the

creation of several large grant programs in the 1980ís and 1990ís.

(Sources of additional information

about the grant programs are listed on

page 10.)

2 Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001 

Note: The complete table of data, from 1982 to 2001, is available at <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/jeeus01.htm>.

Detail may not add to total because of rounding. 

*Duplicative transactions between levels of government (intergovernmental transfers) are excluded from the total for all governments, 

the State total, and the local total. These intergovernmental expenditures consist of payments from one government to another 

and are presented as a direct expenditure of a recipient government. See the box on page 8 for further details.

8.0% 10.5% 9.5% 35.3% 8.9% 9.0% 10.8% 7.2% 7.2% 16.3%

Average annual percent

change, 1982-2001

 1982-2001 366.2% 582.9% 492.3% 2629.1% 446.2% 452.2% 378.7% 297.6% 296.7% 704.3%

Percent change 

2001 167,113 30,443 25,285 5,158 63,372 58,820 4,552 83,377 83,007 370

2000 155,722 27,820 23,086 4,734 58,165 53,991 4,175 78,995 78,644 351

1997 129,793 27,065 20,524 6,541 46,444 42,353 4,091 67,083 66,916 167

1992 93,777 17,423 13,529 3,894 33,755 30,271 3,484 50,115 49,977 138

1987 58,871 7,496 7,231 265 20,157 18,465 1,692 33,265 33,175 90

1982 $35,842 $4,458 $4,269 $189 $11,602 $10,651 $951 $20,968 $20,922 $46

Expenditure (in millions)

Year local direct) Total Direct ernmental Total Direct ernmental Total Direct ernmental

State, and Intergov- Intergov- Intergov-

(Federal, Federal State Local

Total*

Table 1. Total, direct, and intergovernmental justice expenditure and percent

change, by level of government, fiscal years 1982-2001

Figure 1

Judicial and legal Corrections Police

$0.00

$50.00

$100.00

$150.00

$200.00

$250.00

$300.00

Expenditure per capita 

1982

1987

1997

2001

1992

The total expenditure for judicial and legal, corrections, and police protection

services more than tripled between 1982 and 2001, with corrections having the

largest per capita increase ó over 400%

Note: The per capita estimates of expenditure are not adjusted for inflation. Appendix table

on page 8 presents the total and per capita expenditures for the 5 years reported, by function.
 Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001 3

Figure 2

Between 1982 and 2001 the Federal Government increased its

expenditures on police protection by 494%, judicial and legal

services by 636%, and corrections by 861%. The State and local

governments had smaller percent increases in all functions 

(table 2).

The average annual increase was highest for corrections,

ranging from a 9% increase by the local governments to a 13%

increase by the Federal Government. 

Police protection experienced the lowest annual increase. Among

State and local governments the average annual increase for

police protection was about 7%. The Federal Government expenditure for police protection increased about 10% annually.

Accounting for inflation

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), reported by the

Bureau of Labor Statistics, is a commonly used

measure of inflation.1

 According to the CPI, the

average price level for all urban consumers

increased 177.1% between the base years 1982-84

and 2001; the annual average increase was 3%.

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 (177.1%) after

1982, expenditure in 2001 would have been

approximately $63.5 billion ($35.8B x 177.1%), as

opposed to the actual $167.1 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."2

 In 2001 the ratio of

justice expenditure to GDP was $167.1 billion/

$10,082.2 billion (1.66%). In 1982 the percent GDP

was 1.10%.

1

For more information about the CPI see the Bureau of Labor

Statistics website: <http://www.bls.gov/>,Consumer Price Index

for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) table.

2

For more information about the GDP see the Bureau of

Economic Analysis website: <http://www.bea.gov/>.

Notes: Detail may not add to total because of rounding. The complete table of data for each year, from 1982 to 2001, is available at

<http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/jeeus01.htm>.

Sources for Federal Expenditure Data: 1982-96 Annual Finance Survey, U.S. Census Bureau. For 1997-99, detailed functional tables, Budget

Authority by Function, Category and Program. For 2000-01, historical tables, ìOutlays by function and subfunction,î Office of Management and

Budget, Executive Office of the President. 

10.6% 9.6% 12.0% 12.9% 9.0% 6.9% 8.8% 9.9% 7.2% 6.6% 7.5% 9.1%

Average annual

percent change,

1982-2001

1982-01 582.9% 494.1% 636.0% 861.0% 446.2% 270.5% 425.6% 538.4% 297.6% 257.9% 321.2% 455.3%

Percent change

2001 30,443 15,014 10,230 5,199 63,372 10,497 14,444 38,432 83,377 50,718 15,938 16,721

2000 27,820 13,999 9,353 4,467 58,165 9,787 13,249 35,129 78,995 48,219 14,842 15,934

1997 27,065 12,518 10,651 3,896 46,444 7,501 9,803 29,141 67,083 40,976 13,101 13,007

1992 17,423 7,400 7,377 2,646 33,755 5,593 7,723 20,439 50,115 29,659 10,052 10,404

1987 7,496 4,231 2,271 994 20,157 4,067 4,339 11,691 33,265 21,089 6,230 5,947

1982 $4,458 $2,527 $1,390 $541 $11,602 $2,833 $2,748 $6,020 $20,968 $14,172 $3,784 $3,011

(in millions)

Expenditure 

Total protection and legal tions Total protection and legal tions Total protection and legal tions

Police Judicial Correc- Police Judicial Correc- Police Judicial CorrecFederal State Local

Table 2. Total direct and intergovernmental expenditure of Federal, State, and local governments 

for each justice function, and percent change, fiscal years 1982-2001

The total direct justice expenditure for all levels 

of government grew from $36 billion in 1982 

to $167 billion in 2001, a 366% increase

Expenditure in billions

$200

$150

$100

$50

0

366%

297%

452%

492%

Total justice

Local

State

Federal

Percent

growth,

1982-2001

1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2001
Distribution of direct 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 (table 3):

ï Overall, local police spending represented 30% of the Nation's total justice

expenditure, and State corrections

accounted for the second largest

portion, 23%.

ï Police protection is primarily a local

responsibility; accordingly, local governments spent 70% of the total police

protection expenditure in the country 

in 2001.

ï Corrections is primarily a State responsibility, and the State governments

accounted for 63% of the Nation's corrections expenditure.

ï Judicial and legal services in the

United States were funded primarily 

by local (42%) and State (36%)

governments.

The Federal Government spent the

most on intergovernmental grants-inaid, 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.

4 Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001 

Notes: Detail may not add to total because of rounding. Local government data are estimates

subject to sampling variability. The total lines for each justice activity, and for the total justice

system, exclude duplicative intergovernmental amounts. Artificial inflation would result if an intergovernmental expenditure of a government were tabulated and then counted again when the

recipient government(s) spent the amount. The intergovernmental expenditure lines are not 

totaled for the same reason.

--Not applicable.

 Intergovernmental -- 881 2,354 162

 Direct expenditure $56,956 4,318 36,078 16,559

Corrections -- $5,199 $38,432 $16,721

 Intergovernmental -- 1,733 921 207

 Direct expenditure $37,751 8,497 13,523 15,732

Judicial and legal -- $10,230 $14,444 $15,938

 Intergovernmental -- 2,544 1,277 1,519

 Direct expenditure $72,406 12,470 9,220 50,716

Police protection -- $15,014 $10,497 $50,718

 Intergovernmental -- 5,158 4,552 370

 Direct expenditure $167,113 25,285 58,820 83,007

Total justice system -- $30,443 $63,372 $83,377

Activity governments Government governments governments

All Federal State Local

Amount (millions of dollars) spent fiscal year 2001

Table 3. Expenditure, by level of government and justice activity, 

fiscal year 2001

The justice share of State and local expenditure

Seven cents of every dollar spent by State 

and local governments in 2001 was for justice

activities. Among all State and local expenditures, 3% was for police protection, nearly 3% 

for corrections, and 2% for judicial and legal

services.

By comparison, 30% of State and local 

government spending went to education, 

14% to public welfare, 7% to health and 

hospitals, and over 4% to interest on debt.

From 1977 to 2001 total State and local 

expenditures for all functions increased 485%.

ï police protection rose 470% 

ï corrections rose 1101%

ï judicial and legal rose 1766%.

Among some other government functions 

during the same period ó

ï education increased 448%

ï hospitals and healthcare increased 482%

ï interest on debt increased 543%

ï public welfare increased 617%.

Note: The government functions included will not sum to 100% 

of government spending, because some functions were excluded 

for display purposes. Figures may not match those from the 

Expenditure and Employment Extracts because of definitional 

differences.

Source: Historical Finances, U.S. Census Bureau. 

Figure 3

1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

Health and hospitals

Education

Interest on debt

Public welfare

Criminal and civil

justice system

Natural resources,

parks, and recreation

Percent of State and local expenditure

for selected functions, 1977-2001
Distribution of employment by level

of government and activity

In March 2001 the Nation's civil and

criminal justice system employed

nearly 2.3 million persons, with a total

March payroll of $8.1 billion (table 4).

Relative to the entire employed population in 2001, approximately 2% of the

Nationís labor force worked in the

justice system. (For more detailed

information on the national labor force,

see <http://www.bls.gov/cps/

cpsaat1.pdf>.) 

Local governments accounted for more

justice employment than the Federal

and State governments combined. Of

all the Nation's justice employees, 59%

were engaged in local justice activities.

The State and local governments

employed over 91% of all justice

system workers. The Federal Government employed almost 9% of all justice

system employees.

The distribution of corrections employees reflects State government dominance in that sector ó approximately

63% of corrections employees worked

for State governments, followed by

32% at the local level and 4% at the

Federal level.

As law enforcement is primarily the

responsibility of local governments,

80% of the Nation's police employees

were working at the local level. State

governments employed 10% of police

protection workers; the Federal Government, 10%.

Throughout the justice system,

approximately 59% of expenditures

were for payrolls (not shown in table).

The Federal Government spent less 

on payrolls relative to total expenditure

($12 billion out of $30 billion, or 41%)

than did the State and local governments (47% and 66% respectively).

Police protection was the activity with

the highest percentage of expenditure

going to payrolls (66%). The local

governments in particular spent 71% of

their expenditures for police protection

on salaries. 

The activity with the lowest percentage

of expenditure for payrolls was corrections nearly (50% for all governments).

 Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001 5

*Payroll is in millions. Detail may not add to total because of rounding. These data are based on a summation of

responses from individual State and local government agencies. Local government data are estimates subject to

sampling variability, see Methodology for details. 

Refer to Bureau of Justice Statistics Report, Federal Law Enforcement Officers, 2002 for detail of Federal 

employment <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/fleo02.htm>. 

 2001 March payroll $2,349 $137 $1,468 $744 5.8 62.5 31.7

 Total employees 747,061 32,973 473,368 240,720 100% 4.4% 63.4% 32.2%

Corrections

 2001 March payroll $1,798 $318 $639 $841 17.7 35.5 46.8

 Total employees 488,143 57,953 162,982 267,208 100% 11.9% 33.4% 54.7%

Judicial and legal

 2001 March payroll $4,003 $581 $407 $3,016 14.5 10.2 75.3

 Total employees 1,060,219 106,337 104,657 849,225 100% 10.0% 9.9% 80.1%

Police protection

 2001 March payroll* $8,150 $1,035 $2,513 $4,602 12.7 30.8 56.5

 Total employees 2,295,423 197,263 741,007 1,357,153 100% 8.6% 32.3% 59.1%

Total justice system

Activity governments Federal State Local Total Federal State Local

All Percent distribution

Table 4. Employment and monthly payroll of the justice system, 

by activity and level of government, March 2001

Police

and legal

Corrections

0 300,000 600,000 900,000

Number of employees

Judicial

Federal

State

Local

Local governments employed almost 850,000 persons for police 

protection in March 2001, accounting for 8 in 10 employees for this activity

across all levels of government

Local governments also employed over half of all the judicial and legal employees. 

As with expenditures, States had more employees for corrections than both local 

and Federal governments. 

Figure 4
Employment by State

In total, 13% of State and local public

employees worked in the justice

system. Nevada had the highest

percentage of justice employees

relative to employees for other govern

ment functions (17%), followed by

Florida (table 5). The States with the

lowest percentage of justice employees

were West Virginia and Vermont (less

than 8% of all employees). 

California had the most State and local

employees (1.7 million) and the most

employees in the justice system (over

233,600). Vermont was the State with

the fewest employees in State and

6 Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001 

Note: These data are based on a summation of responses from

individual State and local government agencies. Local government

data are estimates subject to sampling variability. See Methodology

for details.

Source: Annual Survey of Government Employment, U.S. Census

Bureau, March (2001). 

West Virginia 96,531 7,517 7.8

Vermont 36,969 2,913 7.9

North Dakota 38,200 3,084 8.1

Maine 74,495 6,174 8.3

Nebraska 112,068 9,433 8.4

Iowa 176,075 15,073 8.6

Minnesota 280,481 24,941 8.9

Wyoming 40,301 3,631 9.0

Mississippi 192,946 17,921 9.3

South Dakota 40,744 3,795 9.3

Montana 53,304 4,943 9.3

Alabama 268,438 25,599 9.5

Alaska 49,183 4,809 9.8

Utah 125,971 12,871 10.2

Kentucky 227,566 23,118 10.2

New Hampshire 65,366 6,857 10.5

Kansas 170,770 18,229 10.7

Idaho 76,080 8,298 10.9

Arkansas 150,958 16,501 10.9

Washington 306,774 34,145 11.1

Oklahoma 199,806 22,086 11.1

Indiana 324,386 36,542 11.3

Rhode Island 57,016 6,598 11.6

Tennessee 303,725 35,554 11.7

North Carolina 463,088 54,206 11.7

Colorado 234,033 27,690 11.8

New Mexico 120,516 14,221 11.8

South Carolina 237,382 28,514 12.0

Wisconsin 288,027 34,931 12.1

Oregon 179,195 22,279 12.4

Virginia 397,418 49,197 12.4

Michigan 499,481 62,681 12.5

Missouri 305,550 38,653 12.7

Texas 1,209,402 153,628 12.7

Hawaii 69,230 8,861 12.8%

All State and local 15,372,855 1,987,724 12.9%

Connecticut 181,974 23,896 13.1

California 1,735,139 233,652 13.5

Ohio 607,466 81,753 13.5

Massachusetts 332,556 44,858 13.5

Louisiana 280,141 38,222 13.6

Georgia 459,215 62,294 13.6

Maryland 279,006 38,635 13.8

Delaware 45,758 6,444 14.1

Illinois 616,123 87,202 14.2

Pennsylvania 540,326 77,998 14.4

New York 1,178,185 179,321 15.2

District of Columbia 44,518 6,810 15.3

New Jersey 459,064 72,771 15.9

Arizona 251,737 40,125 15.9

Florida 803,100 133,104 16.6

Nevada 87,072 15,146 17.4%

State local public justice percent of total

All State and State/local Justice as a

Full-time equivalent employment

Table 5. State and local justice system employment,

and percent of all public employment, by State, 

Expansion of Nationís justice system, 1982-2001 March 2001

The increase in justice expenditures over nearly 20 years

reflects the expansion of the Nationís justice system. For

example, in 1982 the justice system employed approximately 1.27 million persons; in 2001 it reached over 2.2

million. 

Police protection

One indicator of police workload, the FBIís arrest

estimates for State and local police agencies, grew from

12 million in 1982 to an estimated 13.7 million in 2001.1

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 of all

kinds (criminal, civil, domestic, juvenile, and traffic) filed

in the nearly 16,000 general and limited jurisdiction State

courts went from about 86 million to 92.8 million in the

18-year period, 1984-2001.2

 The juvenile court workload

also expanded from 1 million delinquency cases in 1982

to nearly 1.7 million in 2000.3

 The total of judicial and

legal employees grew about 97% to over 488,000

persons in 2001. 

Corrections

The total number of State and Federal inmates grew

from 488,000 in 1985 to over 1.3 million in 2001.4

 The

number of local jail inmates tripled from approximately

207,000 in 1982 to over 631,000 in 2001.5

 Adults on

probation increased from over 1.3 to about 4 million

persons.5

 Overall, corrections employment more than

doubled from nearly 300,000 to over 747,000 during this

period.

1

Crime in the United States, 1982 (FBI, 1983) and 2001 (FBI,

2002).

2

Examining the Work of State Courts, 2002: A National

Perspective from the Court Statistics Project, National Center

for State Courts.

3

OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book, Office of Juvenile Justice 

and Delinquency Prevention, 2000

<http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/index.html>.

4

Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, 2001 (table 6.12),

<http://www.albany.edu/ sourcebook>. 5

Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, 2001 (table 6.1),

<http://www.albany.edu/ sourcebook>.
local government for justice (fewer

than 3,000) and for all functions

(approximately 37,000).

Per capita justice employment of all

State and local governments was

about 70 per 10,000 resident population in 2001 (table 6). Per capita

employment was lowest in West

Virginia, with 42 full-time equivalent

justice employees per 10,000

residents, and highest in the District 

of Columbia, with nearly 119 employees per 10,000 residents. 

Vermont had the fewest State and local

sworn police per capita, with approximately 15 per 10,000 residents. The

District of Columbia employed about 62

officers per 10,000 residents. The

District of Columbia also had the

highest per capita rate of employment

of corrections employees (35) followed

by Texas and New York (nearly 33

State and local officers per 10,000

residents). Maine had the fewest State

and local employees in judicial and

legal services (7) while New Jersey

had the most (25 per 10,000

residents).

 Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001 7

Note: These data are based on a summation of responses from individual State and local

government agencies. Local government data are estimates subject to sampling variability,

see Methodology for details. Population figures are from the U.S. Census Bureau, Current

Population Reports, Series P-25, No. 1045, March 2001.

Wyoming 494 73.5 33.2 23.2 14.8 25.5

Wisconsin 5,406 64.6 29.1 21.9 10.6 24.9

West Virginia 1,801 41.7 20.7 16.3 12.0 9.1

Washington 5,993 57.0 23.6 16.7 13.5 19.9

Virginia 7,197 68.4 26.7 20.4 10.3 31.4

Vermont 613 47.5 20.5 14.6 10.7 16.3

Utah 2,279 56.5 24.3 17.0 11.9 20.3

Texas 21,371 71.9 27.9 20.7 11.3 32.7

Tennessee 5,749 61.8 32.5 24.4 9.7 19.6

South Dakota 758 50.1 22.5 16.6 10.1 17.5

South Carolina 4,062 70.2 33.8 25.0 8.7 27.7

Rhode Island 1,060 62.2 32.9 23.7 11.9 17.5

Pennsylvania 12,303 63.4 26.0 21.5 14.6 22.9

Oregon 3,473 64.1 25.1 17.9 14.4 24.7

Oklahoma 3,470 63.6 31.8 23.1 11.8 20.1

Ohio 11,390 71.8 29.9 22.9 17.8 24.0.

North Dakota 637 48.4 23.5 18.3 12.0 12.8

North Carolina 8,206 66.1 28.5 22.5 7.9 29.6

New York 19,804 94.0 45.3 38.9 15.9 32.7

New Mexico 1,831 77.7 30.8 22.1 17.2 29.7

New Jersey 8,511 85.5 41.1 30.1 25.3 19.1

New Hampshire 1,259 54.5 30.7 24.6 9.3 14.4

Nevada 2,098 72.2 31.6 19.2 15.2 25.3

Nebraska 1,720 54.8 26.7 19.9 10.3 17.8

Montana 905 54.6 25.0 16.9 11.2 18.4

Missouri 5,637 68.6 30.8 22.0 13.4 24.4

Mississippi 2,860 62.7 30.7 21.5 9.6 22.4

Minnesota 4,985 50.0 22.4 16.0 11.5 16.2

Michigan 10,006 62.6 26.1 20.3 12.1 24.4

Massachusetts 6,401 70.1 38.2 31.6 16.4 15.5

Maryland 5,386 71.7 31.4 23.6 13.2 27.2

Maine 1,284 48.1 26.3 19.4 7.3 14.4

Louisiana 4,470 85.5 36.4 27.6 18.0 31.2

Kentucky 4,069 56.8 25.1 18.5 14.9 16.8

Kansas 2,702 67.5 32.6 23.9 13.2 21.6

Iowa 2,932 51.4 24.6 17.8 11.2 15.5

Indiana 6,127 59.6 27.2 19.7 10.5 21.9

Illinois 12,520 69.7 35.3 27.6 14.0 20.3

Idaho 1,321 62.8 29.0 20.9 12.5 21.3

Hawaii 1,227 72.2 29.6 22.9 22.6 20.1

Georgia 8,406 74.1 30.2 23.7 11.9 32.0

Florida 16,373 81.3 35.2 22.5 19.5 26.6

District of Columbia 574 118.6 75.8 61.6 7.6 35.3

Delaware 797 80.9 30.5 21.3 19.6 30.8

Connecticut 3,435 69.6 31.2 24.1 13.1 25.3

Colorado 4,431 62.5 28.0 20.2 12.6 21.9

California 34,600 67.5 28.9 19.4 15.4 23.2

Arkansas 2,695 61.2 29.3 22.0 10.2 21.7

Arizona 5,307 75.6 31.3 23.6 18.6 25.7

Alaska 634 75.9 25.9 16.0 21.9 28.1

Alabama 4,469 57.3 28.8 22.0 12.0 16.5

 Total 284,744 69.7 31.0 23.2 14.1 24.6

State (thousands) system Total only and legal rections

March 2001 justice Sworn Judicial CorPopulation Total Police protection

Full-time equivalent justice employment 

per 10,000 population, March 2001

Table 6. Per capita employment of State and local governments, 

by State and activity, March 2001 
Definition of terms

Expenditure includes only external

cash payments made from any source

of funds, 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.

Expenditureís two major categories:

ï 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.

ï 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 another

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, 2001. 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 "parttime 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 2001.

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 or the Drug Enforcement

Administration. Private security police

are outside the scope of the survey.

8 Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001 

Note: Using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to adjust the 2001 per capita figure of $586 for inflation would yield approximately $320 in 1982 dollars.

For more information on the CPI see the Bureau of Labor Statistics website <www.bls.gov>. Population figures are from the U.S. Census Bureau,

Current Population Reports, Series P-25, No. 1045, July 2001.

1982 226,548,000 35,685,000 158 19,022,000 84 7,771,000 34 8,892,000 39

1987 243,400,000 58,879,000 242 28,778,000 118 12,539,000 52 17,562,000 72

1992 245,807,000 93,777,000 382 41,327,000 168 20,989,000 85 31,461,000 128

1997 267,784,000 129,793,000 485 57,754,000 216 28,529,000 107 43,511,000 162

2001 285,094,000 $167,113,000 $586 $72,406,000 $254 $37,751,000 $132 $56,956,000 $200

Year Population Total Per capita Total Per capita Total Per capita Total Per capita

Corrections expenditure

Judicial and legal 

expenditure 

Police protection

expenditure

Justice expenditure across

government and function

Appendix table. Total and per capita justice expenditure across government and by function, selected years, 1982-2001

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 2001, the total direct expenditure for all

governments was over $167 billion (table 1).
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 community

supervision, 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 U.S. Census Bureauís

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

unitís expenditure. The total number of

local governments in the finance

sample was 7,002, 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

ìstandard error,î 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 Statelocal aggregates which are sampled in

part with certainty. Specific standard

errors can be found on the Census

Bureauís website (<http://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 Bureauís finance and

employment survey reports because of

definitional differences and the more

intensive review procedures and data

refinements used for this compilation. 

Data on State and local justice system

per capita expenditure by State and

activity were not collected in 2001.

These data will be available in 2002. 

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 ó

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

2003, 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, 1990, and

1997 from the Justice Assistance Data

Survey (JADS) 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:

ï long-term trends for 1971-79, 1985,

1988,1990, and 1997 from the JADS

ï recent year-to-year trends from the

1980-2001 Justice Expenditure and

Employment Extracts data.

 Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001 9
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>.

Intergovernmental spending on justice

activities through grant programs

Grant programs affecting expenditure

for justice, as discussed on page 2,

include the following:

ï Administration for Children and

Families within the Department of

Health and Human Services, which

gives grants to States for non-custodial

child support enforcement (See

<http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs

/cse>.)

ï Community Oriented Policing

Services (COPS) program (See 

<http://www.cops.usdoj.gov>.)

ï Edward Byrne Memorial State and

Local Law Enforcement Assistance

Programs (See <http://www.ojp.usdoj.

gov/BJA/grant/byrne.html>.)

ï Local Law Enforcement Block Grant

program. (See <http://www.ojp.usdoj.

gov/ BJA/grant/llebg_app.html>.)

10 Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001 

The Bureau of Justice Statistics 

is the statistical agency of the 

U.S. Department of Justice. 

Lawrence A. Greenfeld is director.

BJS Bulletins present the first 

release of findings from permanent

data collection programs.

Lynn Bauer wrote this report under

the supervision of Steven K. Smith.

Statistician Intern Kinny Jeng

provided data analysis assistance.

Steven W. Perry provided statistical

review. Tom Hester produced and

edited the report. Jayne Robinson

prepared the report for publication.

The data extraction, editing, and

tabulation for the 2001 Justice

Expenditure and Employment

Extracts were performed at the U.S.

Census Bureau by Steven D. Owens.

May 2004, NCJ 202792 B

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 Inter-university Consortium for

Political and Social Research at the

University of Michigan, 1-800-999-

0960. The archive may also be

accessed through the BJS Internet

site.