Sticker Shock: Calculating the Full Price Tag for Youth Incarceration
Published: December 9, 2014
Thirty-three U.S. states and jurisdictions spend $100,000 or more annually to incarcerate a young person, and continue to generate outcomes that result in even greater costs. Our new report, Sticker Shock: Calculating the Full Price Tag for Youth Incarceration, provides estimates of the overall costs resulting from the negative outcomes associated with incarceration. The report finds that these long-term consequences of incarcerating young people could cost taxpayers $8 billion to $21 billion each year.
Download
Sticker Shock: Calculating the Full Price Tag for Youth Incarceration
Executive Summary
Appendix
Press Release
FACTSHEET: The tip of the iceberg: What taxpayers pay to incarcerate youth (Citations)
FACTSHEET: U.S. Youth Incarceration in an International Perspective
Media Coverage
OP-ED: Costs to Incarcerate Young People Tip of Iceberg (Juvenile Justice Information Exchange)
89.7 WKSU (Kent OH)
90.7 WMFE (Orlando)
AL.com (Alabama)
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Capital Public Radio (Sacramento)
Dayton Daily News
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Montana Public Radio
New England Public Radio (Massachusetts)
Northern Public Radio (Illinois)
Omaha Public Radio
Pacific Standard
PBS Frontline
Pensacola News Journal
Providence Journal
The Baltimore Sun
The Bergen Dispatch
The Columbus Dispatch
The Crime Report
The Florida Times-Union
The Houston Chronicle
The Sacramento Bee
The Seattle Times
The StarTribune (Minneapolis)
The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
The Washington Post
The Youth Project
U.S. News & World Report
Utah Public Radio
Winston-Salem Journal
Additional Resources
The information contained in Sticker Shock is based on emerging and new work that seeks to quantify what the long-term costs incarceration can have on young people, taxpayers and our communities, and what action policymakers can take to reduce these costs, and help young people.
Along with Sticker Shock, JPI recommends these other additional resources to help the field build its understanding of these issues:
Cost Benefit Analysis Unit of the Vera Institute of Justice
Washington State Institute for Public Policy
The Economic Value of Opportunity Youth (2012)—Research for the Corporation for National and Community Service and the White House Council for Community Solutions
Standardized Program Evaluation Protocol
Journal of Quantitative Criminology
Positive Youth Justice
Costs and Benefits of Rehabilitation: How the Public Views Policy Alternatives (MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice)
National Juvenile Justice Network Fiscal Policy Center
Tip Sheet on the Costs of Community-Based Supervision
No Place for Kids: The Case for Reducing Juvenile Incarceration
(Click to Enlarge)
Other JPI Works on the Use of Secure Confinement
Common Ground: Lessons Learned from Five States that Reduced Juvenile Confinement by More than Half
Juvenile Justice Reform in Connecticut: How Collaboration and Commitment Have Improved Public Safety and Outcomes for Youth
Cost Effective Youth Corrections: Rationalizing the Fiscal Architecture of Juvenile Justice Systems
The Dangers of Detention: The Impact of Incarcerating Youth in Detention and Other Secure Facilities
Posted in Criminal Justice (Adult), Fiscal Policy, Juvenile Justice, Positive Social Investments, Racial Disparities