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| Inmate increase drives up N.H. prison costs |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 09/24/2001 |
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More inmates and longer sentences are responsible for rising prison costs in New Hampshire, a study says. Nearly $100 million was spent last year by the state and its counties to keep people locked up, the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies said in a report released recently. The study looked at prison spending and policies over the past decade. It found that the state spent about the same amount of money - adjusted for inflation - per inmate each year, and said that means overall cost increases were due to population growth. The number of inmates increased from 337 in 1981 to 2,370 in 2001, the report said. The center found that the crime most likely to land someone in prison last year was a parole violation for drug or alcohol abuse. In the past decade, only spending on Medicaid payments for the poor and nursing home payments for the elderly and disabled increased more than spending on prisons in New Hampshire. The study found that the number of people jailed for new crimes peaked seven years ago, but incarcerations continued to grow due to parole violations. Parole and probation violations accounted for just 11 percent of offenses in 1982. By last year, the figure had grown to nearly 50 percent, the report said. From 1993 to 2000, the state paroled 4,941 inmates, but 2,450 of them returned to prison, most within 10 months. Nearly half of the parole revocations were for violations of terms of release, not new crimes, and 70 percent involved substance abuse, the study found. Inmates also are serving longer sentences, due in part to a 1982 ''truth in sentencing'' law that requires inmates to serve their full minimum terms. The center estimates the statute was responsible for roughly 9,495 inmate-years at a potential cost of $184 million. The estimate does not take into account prisoners who were released early or died, center codirector Richard Minard, the study's author. Minard said that New Hampshire's inmate population growth was relatively small compared to other states. The US Bureau of Justice Statistics said New Hampshire's incarceration rate was the nation's fourth lowest last year, behind only Minnesota, Maine, and North Dakota. |
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