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Privatization and the fallacy of zero fiscal notes on criminal penalty enhancements

This story out of Maine included an interesting chart depicting what proportion of each state's prison population is housed in privately-run facilities:FWIW, Texas reliance on private prisons - where the state pays contractors by the head to lock up inmates -  puts the lie to statements in "fiscal notes" from the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) that criminal penalty increases generate no significant costs. Because 11.6% of our inmates are in private facilities, we pay extra for every additional person who enters a Texas prison. Even when new prisoners go into state-owned units, beds are fungible, prisoners are frequently moved around, and system-wide the marginal extra cost of each new inmate will still equal the cost of an extra private prison bed - probably somewhere in the $15-17,000 range...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on December 28, 2010 (boomark / email).