According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, hous­ing an inmate in California’s cor­rec­tions sys­tem costs an aver­age of $34,150 per year, though that fig­ure is high­er for those on death row or serv­ing a sen­tence of life-with­out-parole. In cap­i­tal cas­es, a more expen­sive inves­ti­ga­tion and pros­e­cu­tion process, as well as long and com­pli­cat­ed appeals, rais­es the costs sig­nif­i­cant­ly. Only about 1% of homi­cides in the state are tried as cap­i­tal cas­es, but those cas­es cost tax­pay­ers two to three times more than non-cap­i­tal cas­es. Critics of the death penal­ty argue that the mon­ey spent on death sen­tences would be bet­ter spent on police, men­tal health and child abuse pre­ven­tion than on exe­cu­tions. ​“To spend so many mil­lions of dol­lars on such a small num­ber of cap­i­tal tri­als real­ly does­n’t make much sense,” said Lance Lindsey of Death Penalty Focus.

The News-Sentinel’s inves­ti­ga­tion revealed the fol­low­ing facts and fig­ures for California:

$7.4 bil­lion: 2006-07 bud­get for the California Corrections Department.
$250 mil­lion: Average cost of 11 exe­cu­tions in 27 years.
$114 mil­lion: Costs of death penal­ty to tax­pay­ers (annu­al).
$34,150: Average annu­al cost of hous­ing an inmate in state prison.
9,000: Average num­ber of pages of court tran­scripts in cap­i­tal cas­es.
645: Inmates on death row.
$200: Cost of lethal injec­tion chem­i­cals.
49: Average age at time of exe­cu­tion.
33: Death Row inmates who died of nat­ur­al caus­es.
17.5: Average time spent on Death Row.
13: Inmates exe­cut­ed in California since 1978.

(Lodi News-Sentinel, March 11, 2006). See Costs and Life Without Parole.

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