imagining the staff salary get $30-$40k you have to ask where does the other $276k go
think about it a $2 a meal budget for 3meals a day for 4 inmates=$24 a day= under $10k a year
laundry. lets call that $10k
electric, heating, water call that $10k
thats still leaves $246k in question
I've known people who have worked in the prison system here over in the UK even some of the more notorious ones around London. As far as I can tell from them talking about it there's a lot of waste, maintenance, and travel costs. If you're cooking for hundreds of inmates then you're going to have waste no matter what. I know people in the UK like the dramatize the whole prison system, and that they don't get a lot to eat etc. However, they definitely do. The standards in the UK are much more than those in Thailand for example. Heating every year would likely be a lot more than 10k. Take your house for example which costs a few hundred pounds per month, and compare that to a full sized prison which has separate rooms, and has to follow certain laws, and regulations.
firstly a cell is not some 3 bedroom house, its a single room. secondly a cell has 2 people in it. so its math of 2 rooms to get to $10k
so if you exclude a 3rd bedroom, exclude a dinning room, kitchen, living room. then heating 2 rooms is cheap EG £1 a day. yep i can heat 2 rooms for £1 a day which is £365 a year ($500 a year) i aslso calculated the 'common area' sch as halls and kitchens. and such too. and per 2 people the total came nowhere near £3k a year($5k) to have the total of $10k i put aside.
i put $10kcoz i was being generous even though i done the math of far cheaper.
if you are paying £8k on electric/heating for a 3-4 bedroom house then i think its time you switched
Same goes for electric, heating and water. I've worked in the water industry, and I can tell you its not cheap. Universities, and prisons have to go through regular sampling procedures which costs them every time. Where as normally the water board would be sampling the local reservoirs, and do the occasional house call prisons, and school systems need more checks throughout the year. That's without including the amount of water that would be used in a prison system which I'm not even going to try, and guess.
unlike a housing situation of 3-4 people bathing baths and using a washing machine every day to wash just 2 t-shirts at a time,
prison cells are 2 people only given a few minutes to shower(thus water economical)
prison cells are 2 people who use industrial laundry that takes masses of clothing in one cycle(thus economical)
again they dont have swimming pools, bathtubs, back garden fish ponds, nor do they ned to wash their car's or garden patio's so the water usage is lower. and again i put numbers up to $10k to be generous.
and again if your paying £8k for water bills each year then its time you get your supplier to sort things out
However, if we consider the more irregular unexpected costs such as if there are any issues relating to infrastructure being compromised then that would require repair. However, to carry out such a repair where you have hundreds of people requiring water they would need to put in a bypass system in order to get potable water to the inmates. When a water pipe has been compromised it will need to be re-chlorinated, and sampled again adding to the cost. Depending on the length of the water main is how much it will cost, and I'm talking a piece of 63mm pipe of hundred meters of so costing in the hundreds,
new piping is not fitted daily. or weekly. infact in many prisons piping has not be dealt with in 50 years.
so one pipe-for-pipe replacement in say 25 years is only 'hundreds' a year
also the underground mains is cheaper. as prisons have basements thus no JCB diggers are needed within the prison walls. just plumbers with hard hats. thus cheaper and faster to repair. the piping within the prison
(the 'mains' pipe to the prison is coverd by the water company)
personal note: yes i do think about the details. i didnt just throw random number around nor pick a lowball number, i actually exaggerated the numbers in many cases to cover many variables and still there is spare funds left over that seem to be unexplained
The water industry is a multi billion pound industry, and England actually pays multi millions of pounds per year to Wales, and Scotland to send water down to them. Water is cheap for a standard house with only a few people living in them. However, when you consider prisons are housing hundreds of people at a time the price starts to rack up considerably.
i think i said my peace above. my math was based on a 4 person 1 guard calculation. and then was generous ontop to add more for the common/shared area.
Travel costs have to be considered also. When a prisoner gets ill they either call a doctor in or they have to escort the prisoner out. Remember, that all medical costs are covered by the tax payer, and therefore if a inmate requires surgery the justice system incorporates this isn't their costs. However, then there's minor things such as medication costs, and painkillers. Yes, prisoners have full rights to receiving medication when they are ill, and has been approved by a doctor. Medication isn't cheap. Then there's dental costs, and other health issues that need to be taken care of. There's simply too much to list, and probably is why the government don't give a full breakdown on what they've spent their money on.
prison guards salary is already covered in the math i done whether they stood in prison or in an ambulance it doesnt matter. its the same amount
as for surgery.. actually thats the NHS budget not prison budget. but i will accept this variable as america and other countries may not use the national health budget but instead require it to come from the prison budget.
but we are still at a point of based on 4 people 1 guard how many times a year would one need medical assistance to rack up $10k a year
if your family of 3-4 are costing you £8k in national insurance or for american readers $10k in medicare then something is off with your accountants sums. maybe your accountant is syphoning funds from you
is only £24k which just goes to show how low costs actually are
.. i really think its time you change accountants if your household bills are £8k for heating and £8k for water for a 4 bedroom house
manypeople can live on basic rations in the UK for less than £12k a year (benefits: living and housing)
so yea £24k sounds about right for the excess for guards and such
but the 'prisons' get £35k a year per inmate all in. so thats £11k in question
not as bad as america's $200k+ in question
Although 79k USD sounds a little steep per inmate its not far off the reported statistics of the UK (per inmate). Being around double the amount compared to the UK. Which, honestly could come to down to cost of living comparison, and other things such as more food per inmate etc. It is America after all, and we all know they like to do things bigger
they dont get large steaks in prison. its more like meatloaf and instant mash