Journal Article 5/16/25
Based in FY 2022 data, the average housing an inmate in prison is $42,672 ($116.91/day). According to the same data, the cost for an inmate to stay in a HWH is $39,197 ($107.39/day). That means there is a savings of $3,475 per person per year that is moved to a HWH.
An even cheaper way of maintaining prisoners is to let them out on home confinement with an ankle monitor. This costs nothing more to the BOP than using the parole officers who are already doing this job. The cost of the ankle monitor is charged to the prisoner. This happened in real life during Covid, so there is real-life data on how well this works out.
As of May 27, 2023, BOP had placed 13,204 individuals into home confinement under the CARES Act. As of May, just 22 of those people had been returned to prison for committing a new crime (www.niskanencenter.org/safer-smarter-and-cheaper-the-promise-of-targeted-home-confinement-with-electronic-monitoring/). That is 0.17% recidivism rate – practically 0. At $42,672 per inmate, this simple act saved $563.4 million per year. I assume they let out white collar criminals, the elderly & infirm and those who were proven to be non-violent after long sentences.
I would encourage the BOP, the Trump Administration & DOGE to look into implementing the CARES Act again. If the government is seeking ways to cut costs, this is a proven method already conducted once by the US government.
