U.s. jails today - Essay Example

Figure 1 illustrates how far the US-prisoner rate than those of other developed countries.  PEW estimated that in 2008 2,319,258 of the US population are incarcerated (7). These statistics are very far from those of China, one of the most populated countries in the world. China’s incarcerated rate is estimated to be at 1.5 million of their population only (Hutchins 1).             According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the ratio of prisoners per 100,000 individuals of the US population grew from 193 in 1995 to 259 in 2007.

Based on the study of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, on average, 15,502 sleeping beds were added in jails during the past 12 months in 2007. The additional beds summed up a total rated capacity of 813,502 beds and in the middle of 2007, 96% of these beds were already used and inhabited by inmates (Bureau of Justice Statistics, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/jails.htm). To maintain such overwhelming number of prisoners, correctional facilities, polices, and support groups should also be at par with the number of prisoners.

With the rapid growing population of inmates in the US, expenditure in jails, correction, support facilities, and others are also increasing dramatically.       According to the figure above, there has been a humungous increase in the expenditure of the criminal-justice functions. In the police function there had been an increased of 396% from the average expenditure of 1982 to the average expenditure in 2005. With regards to correctional and judicial expenses, the same trend occurred with the police functions.

Both correctional and judicial expenses in 2005 had an increase of 619% and 474%, respectively, from its values in 1982.       To accommodate a common inmate, an average of $23,876 per year is needed (PEW, 11). This figure is based on 2005 statistics. Moreover, states expenditure per prisoner varies with Rhode Island with $44, 860 spending on the top of