Monday Map: Your Tax Dollars Go To Prison

by Matt Kelley · 2009-08-10 16:18:00 UTC
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The chart below shows (approximately) the percentage of your tax dollars in each state that go to corrections. It's not exactly a map, but there's a map after the jump, I promise.

These numbers are hideous. Oregon spends more than 10% of its general fund on corrections. Vermont, Michigan, Oregon, Connecticut and Delaware spend more on corrections than on higher education. See your state below. And after the jump, the true data-heads can get a taste of the split between state and local spending on corrections.

Via the super-influential Pew Center on the States Report "One in 100."

As promised, here's the actual map - for the true wonk, an analysis of state vs. local corrections spending in each state. The percentages shown are the share of corrections spending taken on by the state, the remainder is spent by local jurisdictions - on jails, temporary sentences, holding cells and other expenses. Click here - or on the map - for more detailed data from Congressional Quarterly's Governing Sourcebook.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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