Georgia: $18,000 per prisoner vs. $3,800 per student –Fox News

Elizabeth Pran asks Who Gets More Tax Dollars… Prisoners or School Children? Of course, being Fox News, it advocates cutting prison costs by reducing air conditioning for prisoners. The real problem is the War on Drugs and Three Strikes. She does at last manage to mention in passing “alternative programs for non-violent offenders.” Yes, like not locking up people for minor drug offenses in the first place!

And indeed, educating students today would cost less than locking them up later.

Meanwhile, privatizing prisons does nothing to solve these problems; it just lines some corporation’s pockets with tax money.

-jsq