Crime in our nation is a serious problem today. Not only is criminal activity dangerous for the American people but it is expensive as well. The harshest of crimes being homicide, in 2008 it was reported that there were 15,672 murders committed compared to the year 2009 which 14,558 murders took place. According to Fox News studies there is an estimated cost of $17 million of tax payers’ money going into investigating and solving a murder.
The study looks at victim cost, the cost of arrest and adjudication, and the cost of incarceration, trials, and investigators (DeLisi, 2010). According to Forbes. com New York prisoners cost an estimated $42,202 a year to keep one prisoner behind bars, according to a 2007 study by Pew’s Center on the States. At that rate, as there are approximately 62,620 people in New York prisons, New York spends some $2. 6 billion each year on prisoners. California, for example, spent $8. 795 billion locking up prisoners in 2007, according to a separate Pew report.
By way of comparison, for every dollar California spends on higher education, it spends 83 cents on corrections. That should strike lawmakers as an imbalance in priorities. To pay for this the government makes citizens pay heavy taxes. The average household in the US will pay a total of 14. 2% in federal taxes. This average household would have paid 0. 8 percent of its income in corporate taxes (through the stocks it owned), 0. 9 percent in gas and other federal excise taxes, and 9. percent in payroll taxes (Leonhardt, 2010). This representation of the average amount of taxes the average household pays accurately portrays the impact of the policy on households in general. I do believe that the City of Centervale tax payers are very disturbed by the amount of taxes we pay to upkeep our prison systems. I think that it would be best to implement prisoners to have more responsibilities. By this I mean more work-related initiatives to work and pay for things they may need while incarcerated.
In looking at all the statistics on prisoners and the prison system we must understand central tendency and dispersion. Central tendency is a measure that tells us the center of distribution. It is usually measured in (mean, median, or mode). The dispersion is distribution of values around a center value. Range is the most common used way to measure dispersion. American people have no choice to pay the raising tax prices. As I would initiate that prisoner’s pay any way they can for their own incarceration.
References
- DeLisi, Matt. Study Estimates Average Cost of Murder at over $17M. 14 October 2010. Retrieved on February 6, 2011 from http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/10/14/study-average-cost-murder-tops-million/
- Freedman, Daniel. The Wealthy Should Pay for Prison. 13 March 2009. Retrieved on February 6, 2010 from http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/13/jail-prison-rich-taxes-opinions-contributors-madoff.html
- Leonhardt, David. Yes, 47% of Households owe no Taxes. Look Closer. 13 Apri 2010. Retrieved on February 6, 2011 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/business/economy/14leonhardt.html
