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Price tag for federal prisoners: $29K per year
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03/15/13 11:27 AM ET
Incarcerating a person in federal prison costs an average of $29,000 per year, the Justice Department reported Friday.
In a Federal Register publication, BOP reported that its lower-security, community-based housing rings are slightly cheaper than the prisons, costing $26,000 per prisoner.
Federal regulations require that federal inmates who have an income above the poverty line pay back the cost of their incarceration. There are some exceptions and waivers from the fee, and the government has payment plan options. If the inmate is in custody for “less than 334 days,” the fee is adjusted.
The new figure was released by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), which houses more than 200,000 inmates in the United States.
