BASIC PRISON & JAIL FACT SHEET
State Prisons:
There are 70 state prisons in New York.
It costs about $32,400 to maintain a prisoner in a New York State prison for a year.
In January 1973 there were 12,500 persons in the State prison system. Today there are about 63,000,
down from a peak of nearly 71,500 in 1999.
There are approximately 20,000 correction officers working in the State prison system.
The operating budget for the state prisons has increased from about $450 million in fiscal year 198283 to about $2.6 billion today.
Since 1981, New York State has added over 46,000 prison beds at a capital cost of more than $4.5
billion, not including debt service.
In recent years the State has used more and more prison space for drug and other non-violent
offenders and less for violent offenders. In 1980, 886 drug offenders were sent to State prison, 11%
of the total court commitments for that year. In 2005 the number of drug offenders sent to State
prison was 5,835, 35.7% of the total. In contrast: the number of violent offenders sent to State
prison in 1983 was 7,926, 63% of total court commitments; in 2005 the number of violent offenders
going upstate was 4,755, 29.1% of the total.

City Jails:
It costs the city about $59,900 a year to keep an inmate in a New York City Jail.
In 1980 there were about 7,000 inmates in City jails. In 1991, there were 22,600. Today there are
about 14,000.
There are approximately 9,400 correction officers working in New York City’s jails.
The City's Department of Correction’s expenditures grew from $189 million in 1982 to about $830
million for Fiscal Year 2005.
March 2006