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Rhode Island: Budget Hostage Of Correctional Institutions?

by Eric Marion

January 31, 2009

Preliminary Conclusions:
Rhode Island spends more on an individual prisoner than any other state in the US. The amount Rhode Island spends on prisoners is double and in some cases triple the amount spent per capita as many other states. Rhode Island has a long history of excessive expenditures on its Correctional System.

Methodology:
The following report was generated by Divine Providence. The report relies on publicly available data provided by the various state budget and correctional divisions. The data presented (unless otherwise indicated) is drawn from data for either 2007 or 2008. The terms “prisoner” and “inmate” include any person incarcerated in a state run facility. In the case of Rhode Island, the budget outlay also includes monies appropriated for the Parole Board – an amount which is not included in a few of the other states listed, indicating that the analysis below relies upon conservative interpretations of the state’s budgetary representations.

Facts:
Rhode Island was ranked by the Department of Justice as spending $38,503 in 2000 on each inmate. At that time, Rhode Island was lead only by Maine which expended $44,379 per inmate. Since 2001, Maine has reduced its expenditures in this area and in 2007 spent $35,000 per inmate. As of the date of this report, Rhode Islanders pay $46,248 per year on inmates, leading the nation in cost to incarcerate individuals.

Salary and hidden costs appear to be one of the largest components of the Correctional Budget. 62% of the state’s $193,334,191 Department of Corrections budget was allocated to salaries and facilities alone. Additionally, in 2008, Correctional Officers received a 13% annual increase with retroactive pay. Currently, Rhode Island ranks tenth in the nation in average pay for Correctional Officers based upon entrance level salaries. This does not address the salaries of longer-term employees, indicating that the overall salaries of Correctional Officers may place Rhode Island much higher than number 10 in the ranking.

The other component, facilities management, accounts for the remaining portion of the Department's largest budgetary component.

Which begs the question, “where is all this money going”?

The chart below was developed by Divine Providence for illustration. The states represented were chosen for one of two reasons: ease of obtaining their Correctional Department data, or in the case of New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Maine, because their prison population and costs of doing business most closely resemble Rhode Island.


State	State Population	Corrections Budget	Inmate cost per diem	Inmate cost per year	Prison Population	% of prisoners to general population
Rhode Island	1,050,788	193,334,191	126.71	46,248.00	3,860.00	0.37
South Carolina	4,479,800	301,600,000	36.08	13,170	24,090.00	0.54
California	36,756,666	9,700,000,000	97.50	35,587.00	172,000.00	0.47
Florida	18,328,340	1,320,155,646	45.38	16,564	61,962	0.34
Georgia	9,685,744	1,000,000,000	46.14	16,841.00	53,170.00	0.55
New Jersey	8,682,661	1,164,664,000	94.79	34,600.00	23,000	0.26
Massachusetts	6,497,967	542,581,493	104.11	38,000.00	11,040.00	0.17
Maine	1,316,456	157,099,691	95.89	35,000.00	2,161.00	0.16

The cost per diem of housing a prisoner in Rhode Island is four times that of South Carolina. It is nearly double the cost of Florida, and approximately 19% higher than its neighbor, Massachusetts.

Rhode Island does not provide for itemized expenditures on “facility management”. Further, it employees 1,200 individuals yet houses only 3,860 inmates. By extrapolation, 62% of the Department of Corrections annual budget is approximately $120,000,000, all to cover ‘salaries and maintenance’.

With less than 4,000 inmates. The number of inmates relative to its general population is in line with the national average, but higher than the New England average.

Conclusion:
In these economic times, a comparative analysis of possible savings which might be generated through a review of DOC accounting is in order. If Rhode Island were to accomplish an average per diem inmate expenditure of $98.33 (the combined average of Mass, NJ, ME), Rhode Island would see a budget savings of approximately $40,022,410 (40 million) in a new fiscal year. This represents more than ten percent of state's total budget deficit. By lowering costs even further, the savings would be similarly increased.

Even spending $98 a day on prisoners is out of line with the vast majority of other state correctional schemes. South Carolina and Georgia are able to house inmates for under $50 per day. Even California spends less than $100 per day on inmates.

Rhode Island’s prison facilities are enclosed, well constructed, and closely linked geographically.

Rhode Island requires no greater protections nor is required to afford greater resources to its inmates than its northern neighbor Massachusetts. There is no evidence that prisoners in Rhode Island facilities are better or worse off than inmates in Massachusetts or other states in terms of services or facility provisions.

The conclusion is irrefutable: taxpayer funds are being funneled through the Department of Corrections to unknown recipients. The absence of proper accounting or accountability on the part of the DOC leaves this drain on the state’s budget unchecked. And the amount of funds being funneled into the DOC are significant.