government costs of incarceration
The average cost of incarceration in the United States is determined by different methods. It costs anywhere between $20,000 and $40,000 per year to house inmates in federal and state correctional facilities; the considerable spread is due to the criteria used by government agencies and prison system watchdogs.ccording to the Vera Institute of Justice, the average cost of housing an inmate in the U.S. was $31,286 in 2012. New York had the highest cost at $31,286 and Kentucky the lowest at $14,603. The Prison-Industrial Complex.