“Do the crime, pay the time.”

Should we be paying for inmate’s jail time? Should they have free food, free education and a roof over their heads after committing a crime? This seems to be an ongoing topic in the United States and in Canada. Politician’s and law men think inmates shouldn’t have a free pass. The way certain people see it “Do the crime, pay the time”, and I agree. Why should we, honest, hard working tax payers spend our hard earned money for the on-going errors that inmates keep repeating? Does that make sense?

In the United States alone there is approx 2.4 million people incarcerated. 2.4 million inmates! That’s almost 7% of Canada’s population. Prisons cost taxpayers more than $32 billion a year. An American study done in 2010, demonstrated that every year an inmate spends behind bars costs taxpayers anywhere from $30,000.00 to $168,000.00! So an individual sentenced to a five year sentence because of a $2,500.00 theft could costs the public more than $125,000. The cost of a life term averages $1.7 million per inmate! That’s a lot of money coming out of our pockets, your future children's pockets.

Studies have shown that certain states are spending more money on prisons than education. Over the course of the last 25 years, the amount of money spent on prisons has increased by 570% while that spent on elementary and high school education was increased by only 33%. That’s a huge difference! Once again I ask, Does that seem right? So why should we pay for this?
Here’s a fun fact, NYC’s Riker Island prison’s annual cost for an inmate is $168,000.00! That’s nearly as much as it costs to pay for four years of tuition at an Ivy League university in the U.S. Why so much? Being that the Riker's prison is an Island, it involves many extra costs. The U.S. department of correction says it spends $30 million annually alone on transportation costs, running bus services that usher inmates to and from court throughout the five boroughs, staff from a central parking lot to Riker’s jail and visitors to and around the island. There were approximately 262,000 inmates delivered from Riker's to court's last year and where are all these cost coming from? You guessed it, taxpayers money.

In 2005/2006, there were 192 correctional facilities across Canada. Canadian jail costs are a little higher... The cost of incarcerating a Federal male prisoner in Canada (2004/2005) was $88,000.00 per prisoner/per year. This figure does not include policing or court costs which bring the total expenditures up to more than $10 billion for the year.

Maybe we Canadians should take a lesson from our neighbors down south. Arizona Sheriff, Joe Arpaio a.k.a. “America’s toughest Sheriff”, strongly believes that inmates shouldn't get a free ride and need to pay for being in jail. In fact, Sheriff Arpaio was able to cut down many expenses when it comes to his prisons and was able to save tax payers money. For example; he banned smoking, coffee, movies, pornographic magazines, and unrestricted TV in all jails. He has the cheapest meals in the U.S. prison system also. The average meal costs between 15 and 40 cents. Inmates are fed only twice daily to cut the labor costs of food expenses and meal delivery. He even stopped serving them salt and pepper to save tax payers $20,000 a year. Another thing he’s famous for, chain gangs, which contribute THOUSANDS of dollars of FREE labor to the community. The male chain gang, and the world’s first-ever female and juvenile chain gangs, help clean streets, paint over graffiti, and bury the indigent in the county cemetery.

Some Americans find Sheriff Arpaio's measures a little extreme. People complain that he doesn't make the difference between first time offenders who are caught with marijuana vs. a car jacker. To Sheriff Arpaio, a crime is a crime. Make things tougher and criminals will think twice before committing a crime. Some criminals look at the jail system as a small vacation. They get fed, they have doctors on site, they have access to gym's, possibility of getting a free education... and all of this paid by us tax payers.

So I ask you, does this make any sense? Why should all of US be paying for their mistakes? Better yet, why should jail systems get increased funding while our children's future education budgets get cut?