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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