Burgess COMMENTARY
PeterBurgess • a few seconds ago The thrust of this article is well taken, but it also points up a fundamental weakness in how our modern socio-enviro-economic system is managed. Boeing would never build an aircraft using the sloppy systems of measurement that are the norm for the management of most all of the very important aspects of our lives. I argue that a better system of measurement and accounting is needed so that all transactions reflect the full and true cost and value of what is going on. I call this True Value Accounting which should be used everywhere so that the full impact of decisions get to be clearly understood and accounted for. This is not a legal construct ... it is numbering, and based on concepts well proven in the natural sciences on the one hand and in corporate double entry accounting on the other. ... Peter Burgess ... http://truevaluemetrics.org
Peter Burgess

The True Cost of Mass Incarceration Exceeds $1 Trillion ... Ultimately, the social cost of mass incarceration is 11 times higher than total spent on the corrections system itself.

SOURCENationofChange

In recent years, the bipartisan push for criminal justice reform has been fueled in large part by the astronomical price tag that comes with mass incarceration. Locking people up in federal, state, and local correctional facilities costs the government a whopping $80 billion, and taxpayers end up footing the bill. But a Washington University study released in July projects that the price tag touted by advocates of reform is a mere fraction of the actual cost of mass incarceration.

When the financial toll on social welfare is taken into account, the working paper estimated the cost of mass incarceration exceeds $1 trillion.

According to researchers Carrie Pettus-Davis and Michael McLaughlin, the incarcerated population misses out on $70.5 billion in lost wages. While previous studies show that former prisoners less likely to be hired, and make significantly less money than their colleagues when they do secure jobs, Pettus-Davis and McLaughlin concluded that reduced wages add up to $230 billion in lost earnings.

Families who have loved ones in prison also shoulder the financial load. The amount of time it takes people to visit their family members, instead of working, results in $1 billion of lost revenue, researchers found. Relatives spend an exorbitant amount of money traveling to and from correctional facilities, and communicating with prisoners from afar. Consequently, families incur $5 billion of so-called “criminal justice debt,” annually, and pay $513 million a year.

The correctional system also costs hundreds of billions of dollars in future crime.

Prisons and jails “[reinforce] behavior and survival strategies that are manipulative outside the prison environment,” according to the paper, so people who are released back into society tend to fall back into criminal activity. That “criminogenic nature of prison” costs society $285.8 billion. Children, who are also more likely to end up in the criminal justice system if a parent has done time, generate another $131 billion in criminality costs.

Homelessness among former prisoners, eviction rates due to lost income, and the mental and physical health of prisoners and their family members also lead to billions in taxpayer money and lost revenue.

While the body of research about the costs of prison and jails is robust — and growing — Pettus-Davis and McLaughlin are the first researchers ever to give an estimate that accounts for the total societal cost of mass incarceration.

“We find that for every dollar in corrections costs, incarceration generates an additional $10 in social costs,” Pettus-Davis told The Source. “More than half of the costs are borne by families, children and community members who have committed no crime.”

Ultimately, the social cost of mass incarceration is 11 times higher than total spent on the corrections system itself.

“This is important because it suggests that the true cost of incarceration has been grossly underestimated, perhaps resulting in a level of incarceration beyond that which is socially optimal,” the report concluded.

SOURCE NationofChange

Carimah Townes Carimah Townes Carimah Townes is the Criminal Justice Reporter for ThinkProgress. She received a B.A. in political science from UCLA, where she also minored in cultural anthropology. While in school, she served as a festival planner and interned with the Office of Mayor Villaraigosa. Before joining ThinkProgress, she worked for the National Center for Lesbian Rights and interned with the Communications and Development teams at Vital Voices Global Partnership. Carimah is originally from Amherst, Massachusetts.

PeterBurgess • 10 hours ago The thrust of this article is well taken, but it also points up a fundamental weakness in how our modern socio-enviro-economic system is managed. Boeing would never build an aircraft using the sloppy systems of measurement that are the norm for the management of most all of the very important aspects of our lives. I argue that a better system of measurement and accounting is needed so that all transactions reflect the full and true cost and value of what is going on. I call this True Value Accounting which should be used everywhere so that the full impact of decisions get to be clearly understood and accounted for. This is not a legal construct ... it is numbering, and based on concepts well proven in the natural sciences on the one hand and in corporate double entry accounting on the other. ... Peter Burgess ... http://truevaluemetrics.org 2 • Edit• Reply•Share › Avatar DHFabian PeterBurgess • 3 hours ago I think it's reasonable to assume that those in positions of power would not allow such a system. • Reply•Share › Avatar DHFabian ... Valid point, but this is the reason why TrueValueMetrics emerges as a system and not simply as a single focus initiative. Think of the problem as a professional sport, and coaches develop strategies to overcome the power in the opposing team in order to win. TVM wins the game one point at a time., But you are totally right ... a lot of those in positions of power will be very much opposed to the idea. Attach Post as PeterBurgess Avatar Joe V PeterBurgess • 8 hours ago The only problem with true metrics is that it doesn't allow for self-delusion, which is very important to a lot of people. Why deal with the truth when instead you can mold your perception of things into whatever you want? • Reply•Share › Avatar PeterBurgess Joe V • a few seconds ago Joe V. ... self delusion is an issue ... but in the end reality sets in. Facts are facts, but many of the most important facts related to quality of life, environmental degradation, social dysfunction are well known but totally ignored in the way the conversation goes around corporate performance, interest rates, stock prices, GDP growth and the rest ... TVM is a total system built on some of the basics that informed the accounting procession 50+ years ago!