Teaching the 3 R’s locally much cheaper than jailing a criminal
Governments in the Washington region spend more taxpayer cash each day to jail a criminal than to educate a student — in many cases twice as much.
Local corrections departments spent an average of $140 per day for each jail inmate in 2008, the most recent year for which data were widely available. Meanwhile, public schools spent an average of $85 a day per student.
“It’s tragic,” said D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson, D-at large, chairman of the District’s public safety committee. “We spend a lot of money on inmates, and it’s not a constructive way to spend government dollars when you compare it to what we could get if we spent the money on schools.”
Area
Inmate spending per day
Student spendingper day
District
$141
$117
Montgomery
$157
$82
Prince George’s
$123
$67
Loudoun
$169
$71
Fairfax
$145
$74
Alexandria
$135
$107
Arlington
$134
$103
Prince William
$116
$58
Note: Figures based on operating expenditures in fiscal 2008.Sources: D.C. Office of Communications, Virginia Compensation Board, Washington Area Boards of Education, Montgomery and Prince George’s county corrections departments
The District spent roughly $141 a day on each inmate, compared with an area-high $117 per student.
Northern Virginia’s jails spent about $140 per day on each inmate, while the state averaged about half that. But in many Virginia and Maryland jurisdictions outside the Washington area, more was spent on students than inmates. In Richmond, for example, about $48 was spent on each jail prisoner, while $73 was spent on every student.
In contrast, Loudoun County spent more than $169 per day for each of its 135 inmates, the most in the state, according to the Virginia Compensation Board.
“We’re overpopulated, and we’re understaffed,” said Lt. Ronald Gibson, who oversees Loudoun’s corrections department.
Gibson said employee overtime pay, as well as the costs of transporting inmates who don’t fit in the jail to other jurisdictions, was driving the increase in Loudoun’s expenditures. He said the department’s nearly completed jail expansion had necessitated spending increases.
Loudoun has raised the amount of taxpayer money spent on corrections during each of the last five years — nearly doubling the department’s local funding since 2006, when it totaled about $7 million.
At the same time, county officials plan to cut $30 million and roughly 50 jobs from Loudoun’s school system, despite rising student enrollment.
At the same time, county officials plan to cut $30 million and roughly 50 jobs from Loudoun’s school system, despite rising student enrollment.
“It looks like we’re going to go down two years in a row, which has never happened before,” said schools spokesman Wayde Byard.
In Maryland, Montgomery County spent roughly $157 per day on every jail inmate, far outpacing the state average and almost doubling the $82 spent on each student.
Studies have shown that spending money on education keeps students out of jail later.
“There is significant research showing that investing in quality early education programs helps put at-risk children on the right track [and] reduces the likelihood that these children will engage in criminal behavior,” said Miriam Rollin, executive director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national organization of law enforcement officials.
“It is absolutely a governmental priority in the D.C. area to meet national standards at the highest level,” he said, adding that meeting those standards increases costs.
Some area officials said the expenditures should not be looked at side by side.
“I think the comparison is sort of apples to oranges,” said Fairfax County Board Chairwoman Sharon Bulova.
“The cost of incarcerating a prisoner includes 24-hour service, mental health services, three meals a day and the cost of having a trained guard. There’s just no comparison to a student in a classroom.”
