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SD: Tax-subsidized prison gravy train must end

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

My Voice: Tax-subsidized prison gravy train must end Ronald R. Fraser ? June 4, 2008 South Dakota Argus Leader In South Dakota's booming prison economy there are winners and losers. Inmates face financial ruin, and state taxpayers lose, too - about $19,000 per year, per inmate. Prison entrepreneurs for whom each inmate is a government-subsidized business opportunity are the big winners. Growing nationally by 3.4 percent a year for the past 10 years, federal, state and local prisons hold 2.3 million inmates - one-half of whom are non-violent and small-time drug law offenders. From 2000 to 2005, South Dakota's prison population grew at a steady rate of 5.8 percent per year. South Dakota's annual taxpayer contribution for state prisons and local jails - $92 million in 2005 and rising - keeps the prison market hot...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on June 04, 2008 (boomark / email).