[Leaning Right]

I read somewhere that every inmate in jail costs taxpayers $50K. And someone on death row, a $100K.

And to complete the picture, I've read that the average unjailed criminal does $250K in damage to society each year. If that's actually true, prisons are a bargain.

[mikeIII]

I don’t think this applies to all unjailed criminals - we incarcerate excessively. In any case, my point here is that this is not fair to the American tax-payer because this criminal is not American.