Up front costs of prosecution are never included in the cost per prisoner figures given out by the State. Taxpayers are paying dearly and the trials are a shame and a sham. If you estimate what is not included, the figure is much, much higher. Animals in the zoo are treated better than most of our inmates. Fresh food and citrus are rarely served, the emotional and physical health of 160,000 inmates at any given time is shameful.
Lifers tend to be suicidal, especially when their sentence was for some minor offense.
The entire atmosphere inside is run with the same inhumanity and inefficiency of the court system, only worse because the guards have guns and absolute power. Prisons aren't hospitals, they are blood houses were people who need help become even sicker. Disease is spread to the children and then back out into the population. Children of prisoners very likely also end up in prison too later on because of the poverty and lack of parenting imprisonment imposes on these families. The cycle perpetuates itself.