Economics of Incarceration: Looking Beyond Market Costs

• In Event: Penal Abolition: Session 2 of 3

Abstract

In many instances incarceration represents failures of society: to appropriate the resources needed to a given community; to step-in to meet the developmental needs of children; and to promote the economic status of all its constituents. These are but a few of the foundational elements that create the potential for economic crime, opportunistic crime, drug crimes, gambling and prostitution. Incarceration of individuals who have engaged in these types of activities arguably furthers the societal failure and establishes a visible social cost, while also establishing the normalization of punitively based correction. This paper includes an evaluation of both the direct or quantifiable costs of the incarceration of a group of male inmates at a minimum security prison in Massachusetts against the crime committed, and the imputed costs related to societal failures that are manifested in incarceration. Implementing a lifecycle assessment, the author will account for both the direct and imputed costs of incarceration, the costs of early childhood intervention (including assessment of housing, nutritional food intake, and educational quality), and the costs of provision of the same elements in lieu of incarceration. The holistic evaluation will support an economic rationale for prison abolition.

Author

• Madhavi Venkatesan, Bridgewater State University