State Spending On Prisons Grows At 6 Times Rate Of Higher Education

From a press release from the Justice Policy Institute:

A new report shows that during the 1980s and 1990s, state spending on corrections grew at 6 times the rate of state spending on higher education, and by the close of the millennium, there were nearly a third more African American men in prison and jail than in universities or colleges.

The report, "Cellblocks or Classrooms? The Funding of Higher Education and Corrections and Its Impact on African American Men," provides state by state analysis of corrections and higher education spending, and is the latest in a series of reports by the Justice Policy Institute to show the fiscal impact of the nation's overuse of prison as a solution to social problems. Between 1985 and 2000, the increase in state spending on corrections was nearly double that of the increase to higher education ($20 billion versus $10.7 billion), and the total increase in spending on higher education by states was 24 percent, compared with 166 percent for corrections. Cellblocks or Classrooms? also reports that in 2000, there were an estimated 791,600 African American men in prison and jail, and 603,000 in higher education.

"This report underlines the sad reality that the nation's colleges and universities have lost budget battles to the growing prison system," states Vincent Schiraldi, JPI President and report co- author. "With harder economic times ahead, we need to find a way to responsibly reduce this country's reliance on expensive prisons so that we don't bankrupt our institutions of higher learning."

Update: Silja J.A. Talvi follows up the report with this article in Alternet.