These often are put on welfare, and children are put in foster care. The parent-less kids are more likely to go berserk, adding to the crime wave. Then there's the reduced tax revenues with 1.5 million who can't be wage-earners. It goes on and on. Of course it comes from higher taxes or from sacrifices in schools, roads, libraries, environment, job training, health, and other social services.
Education is one area that suffers.
For example, the California Dept. of Corrections has added 25,864 employees, while there was a reduction of 8,082 higher education employees. As states continue to layoff teachers to pay for corrections officers, it is becoming more apparent that their citizens are poorly educated and unemployable - precisely the kind of person who will fill our prisons. Often, after a dehumanizing lesson in utter dependence, they leave less able to cope than when they entered the prisons. We know that today's prisoners are tomorrows neighbors. New York State alone now releases some 30,000 prisoners back to society each year.