Professor John Pfaff was quoted in an article discussing how some district attorneys are advocating for the price of incarceration to become a factor in court decisions of punishment and justice.
And some judges don’t want to know how much a prison term will cost. They argue that money has no place in decisions about punishment and justice. Choosing a sentence, they say, should involve weighing the specific situation and needs of the offender and victim, irrespective of budget.
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Of course, the financial toll of incarceration isn’t necessarily the most significant toll. “What do we gain from not sending one person to prison? It’s not really that reduction in $7,000 a year in tax spending. It’s that this person doesn’t get raped, he doesn’t get HIV, his child doesn’t suffer the stigma of a father who’s in prison,” says Pfaff. “When people return from prison, they tend to be sicker, they have a harder time finding a job. All these things are the real costs.” And they can increase the chances of a person reoffending.