JimT wrote:
snip

While this all is interesting, the original point began with the cost
of locking up more people. So f$%king what if TX can lock them up per
inmate cheaper if we are still paying 1% over the national average as
a % of total state buget?

The bottom line is all that matters to me. I'm not going to prison
anytime soon. Good for f$%king Texas; they can lock them up cheap.
Lower my f$%king taxes TOO! Too many motherf$%kers are in jail in
Texas....PERIOD!
:-)


Well, yeah, not sending as many crooks to prison might lower the cost per
inmate, but don't forget the economies of scale!

If we got down to, say, only ONE inmate in prison, the cost per inmate would
be astronomical. For example, you'd need, say, five full-time guards (at,
oh, $60,000 each per year), a building, utilities, food, etc. The cost per
inmate could easily reach a half-million per year.

On the other hand, if you have 200,000 prisoners already, adding one more
can be had for pennies.

In other words, to lower the cost per inmate, we need to INCREASE the number
of prisoners, not reduce it.