MA state corrections budget on the rise.
Spending on correction agencies in Massachusetts has exploded in the past decade despite only a modest increase in the number of people incarcerated and now accounts for a bigger chunk of the state budget than each of the departments that oversee higher education, social services, and public health, according to a new study.
The study by the Boston Foundation says the more than $1.2 billion spent this year on correction stems largely from a decades-old, lock-’em-up approach that has put about 11,000 people in state prisons and about 14,000 people in county jails, resulting in mammoth labor and facility costs.
Spending on prisons, jails, probation, and parole exceeds every form of state spending this year except money funneled to public elementary and secondary schools and to communities as local aid, according to the 33-page study, which will be made public today. Spending on probation alone has soared 163 percent in the past 10 years.
Link:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/12/03/state_correction_budget_is_soaring_new_study_says/
Link:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/12/03/state_correction_budget_is_soaring_new_study_says/