Despite drop in incarceration, correctional spending grows
Though Massachusetts is incarcerating fewer people than it was in fiscal year 2011, state spending on correctional facilities has climbed by about 18 percent, a new report from MassINC found.
Since fiscal 2011 -- the high water mark for the state's incarcerated population -- the average daily number of people incarcerated in state prisons and jails has declined by about 12 percent from 23,850 to 20,961 but state spending increased by $181 million to $1.2 billion.
The 18 percent growth rate for correctional spending during that period outpaced spending growth for many other parts of the state budget, growing more than 1.5 times faster than the rate of increase for state education aid and twice the rate of growth for general local aid, according to the study.
The report's findings are due to be announced Monday at the Criminal Justice Reform Coalition Policy Summit, hosted by MassINC and the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice and Congresswoman Katherine Clark will address the summit.
The conference is expected to examine how the state could spend savings associated with a declining inmate population on ancillary programs like drug rehabilitation and mental health counseling to improve the broader criminal justice system.
"As we have a reducing population, we still have increasing costs of incarceration," Clark said Monday morning. "And we need those resources for so many other things."
Most of the growth in correctional spending -- 84 percent -- was driven by new hires and rising employee compensation within the correctional fields, MassINC found.
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