Politifact California: Does it cost $75K per year to lock up an inmate in California?
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U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris believes taxpayers aren’t "getting a good return on investment" when it comes to California’s prison system.
The California Democrat told the Women Unshackled forum in Washington D.C. in July that alternatives to locking up inmates, such as drug treatment programs, are far cheaper and sometimes more effective than prison sentences. Her figures for California’s per inmate costs were eye-opening.
"Let’s look at the fact that there is an issue around how much we are paying — and again, this gets back to the economic cost — it costs us about $33,000 a year to lock somebody up. In California it costs about $75,000 a year," Harris said on July 18, 2017.