Education vs. Incarceration
Nationally, the rate of states’ prison spending is increasing faster than education spending. Perhaps the most infamous example is California, which, between 1980 and 2012, decreased higher education spending by 13% and increased spending on prisons and correctional programs by an astonishing 436%.
Books Through Bars believes education is key to reducing crime. Multiple studies support the benefits of investing in education over incarceration in general, as well as the benefits of educating the incarcerated. However, current trends in state spending across the country do not align with these findings.
Source: CNN. Click to expand. Data are from 2014.
Pennsylvania: Bars Before Books
The past decades in Pennsylvania reflect a national trend of investing heavily in prison spending while radically slashing education spending.
Incarceration in PA
From 2000-2010, Pennsylvania’s prison population grew 40%, from 36,847 to 51,264; in 2009, PA had the fastest-growing prison population in the U.S. During that same time period,
The Department of Corrections’ budget increased 37%, from $1.17 billion to $1.6 billion
Part I (more serious) crime rates dropped by nearly 3% and Part II (less serious) crimes increased by a fraction of a percent
Yet according to a 2011 report from the Pennsylvania Auditor General, “Less than half of the inmates (46 percent) in Pennsylvania correctional institutes are Part I violent offenders.” The report also states that “cuts can and must be made in criminal justice programs to meet these budgetary constraints without sacrificing public safety” and “the Commonwealth could save hundreds of millions of dollars in capital costs by not building new prisons.”
Despite this, the 2013 state budget allocated $400 million for the construction of a new prison in Graterford, PA, just outside of Philadelphia, which required 23 schools to be closed and thousands of school employees to be laid off.
Source: Jason Killinger for Maskar Design. Click to expand. Data are from 2001.
Education in PA
While PA continues to invest in prisons, it has slashed education spending.
The 2011–2012 state budget cut $1.1 billion from the education budget
In the 2013–2014 school year, facing a $304 million budget shortfall, the Philadelphia district closed 23 schools and fired thousands of teachers, aides, and counselors in the remaining schools
That same year, 75% of PA schools reduced instructional programming as a result of budget cuts
In 2012–2013, PA spent twice as much on prisons as it did on higher education
Studies report that anywhere from 50% to 70% of incarcerated people have not completed high school.
Nationally: Leading in Prisoners, Not Graduates
The United States is ranked #22 in educational attainment globally, but #1 in incarceration. We hold less than 5% of the world’s population, but more than 20% of its prison population. In 2013, The Atlantic estimated that “1 million students will fail to graduate high school, a loss of 5,500 students for every day on the academic calendar.” In 2022, 2.1 million students dropped out of high school.
While spending on incarceration continues to increase, funds for schooling at every level, from Head Start to university, continue to be cut each year. According to the Pew Center, from 1987 to 2007, nationwide spending on corrections increased by 127%, while spending on higher education saw only a 21% increase. In 2021, Pennsylvania spent 3.4 times on incarceration what it spent on education per capita.
What’s the link between education and incarceration? Consider, for example, these statistics:
Nationally, about 1 in 10 young male high school dropouts is imprisoned, compared to 1 in 35 young male high school graduates
First-time incarceration reduces lifetime earnings by 33% for Black men with a high school diploma, by 43% for white men with a high school diploma, and by 50% among both Black and white men without a high school diploma
People who drop out of high school are 63 times as likely to be incarcerated as those who graduated from a four-year college
Formerly incarcerated people are 8 times less likely to graduate from a four-year college than those who have not been incarcerated
Excerpt courtesy of Knewton and Infographic World. View full image here.