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Defined Terms
Annual Administrative Cost of Australian Maximum
Security Prisons -
$150,000 p.a. per inmate in 2019
The expensive problem with our prisons: Why spending more doesn't make us feel
safer – ABC News - Aug 2017 and
Australia spending more on prisons, policing than other comparable countries:
report – ABC News 21
Nov 2017 report:
"In
Australia in 2015, the (ave.) cost of putting one person behind bars for a year
was nearly $110,000. The OECD average was $69,000 per person."
Below is an
extract from
The
Booming Industry continued: Australian Prisons a 2017 update -
January 2017 that
refers to the afore-mentioned prisoner costs across the various Australian
states, but also adds in
Capital
Expenditure Costs for construction and modification that appear further down the above Table
8A.7 :
Costs
Prison is an expensive business with the taxpayer footing the
total bill. Both the financial and social costs of locking up more people are, not surprisingly,
increasing. Expenditure on prisons alone in Australia in 2014/2015 was $2.9 billion
(Productivity Commission 2016: 8.3). From 2007-2008 to 2012-2013, criminal justice (all
criminal justice agencies) expenditure increased by 24% overall and by an average of 5%
each year (AIC 2014). All jurisdictions are building more prisons or expanding current
prisons to accommodate the growing numbers. The costs of building prisons are high but
higher still are the recurrent costs of maintaining and running them (NSW Legislative Council
Inquiry into the Increase in Prisoner Population 2001; Productivity Commission 2016:8.4).
The
total average cost (including capital and recurrent costs) per prisoner per day in
Australia in 2014-2015 was $301 - $109,865 per NSW prisoner p.a. (Productivity Commission 2016:8.22).
This varied across
states and territories and was the highest in -
* the Australian Capital Territory ($421 per
prisoner per day) $153,665 per ACT prisoner p.a. ; and
* Tasmania ($420 per prisoner per day)
$153,300 per ACT prisoner p.a. (Productivity Commission 2016).
In
2016, the NSW Government announced it would spend a further $3.8 billion dollars on the
expansion of the prison estate in NSW, in order to increase current prison capacity by 7,000
beds (NSW Government 2016).
Material Prisoner
Costs Borne By The
Public
Purse
provides various sources for identifying prison/prisoner costs across Australia.
After reading the following articles, casual empiricism suggests that the
ave
Administration Cost per annum for a prisoner in a
Maximum Security
Prison such as
Goulburn's
Supermax which houses a lot of Muslim jihadists extremists or
Lara Barwon Prison, Victoria is $150,000 p.a. per
inmate in 2019:
To the SuperMax
- THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN
- April 2017
- "A special unit in this prison
houses Australia’s most dangerous
extremists. We gain rare access
and discover a ticking time bomb"
Australia's jail population hits record high after 20-year surge – The
Guardian
Australia spending more on prisons, policing than other comparable countries:
report – ABC News
The expensive problem with our prisons: Why spending more doesn't make us feel
safer – ABC News - Aug 2017
See:
Capital
Expenditure Cost Of Building New or Modify/Extending
Existing Prisons
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