Do You Know How Much A Prisoner Costs Each Year In Montana?

You hear a lot of talk about how crime is out of control in both America and Montana and how we need to up the budget for our police departments.

What you don't hear about as often is how much it costs each year to house all those prisoners being locked up.

How Is The Cost Per Prisoner In Montana Calculated?

There is quite a bit of math involved when it comes to figuring out how much a prisoner costs to house each year.

You have the standard day-to-day stuff like utilities, but then there is also the salary of the officers at the prison factored in.

The biggest cost of housing a prisoner goes to the almost 4,000 vendors that provide things like healthcare and food for the criminal justice system.

A silhouette of a prisoner holding his head in his hands while behind bars
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How Many Prisoners Are There Currently In America?

While we don't have an exact number as of publication, the website Prison Policy says that in March 2024 there were over 1.9 million people locked up.

That accounts for state prisons, federal prisons, local jails, juvenile correctional facilities, immigration detention facilities, and Indian country jails.

It also includes military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories, all combining to cost almost $182 billion dollars each year.

So just how much does it cost to house a prisoner in Montana, and how do we compare to other states in America? Check out the gallery below to see which states spend the most on prisoners and which ones spend the least.👇

The Cost Per Prisoner For Each State In America

The cost of housing a prisoner varies from state to state, due to factors like utility costs and officer salaries. See how much each state spends per year housing these prisoners. Stats for costs come from Visual Capitalist while incarceration rate comes from Prison Policy.

Gallery Credit: Nick Northern

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