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

Prison expansion for Victoria as more get locked up - The Age - 25 Jan 2018

See:  Capital Expenditure Cost Of Building New or Modify/Extending Existing Prisons

 

 

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