BBC News - Cost of prison prompts change in US states

BBC News - Cost of prison prompts change in US states

"After a few minutes in Baton Rouge Parish prison you forget what the sky looks like.

Men lie on bunks, wait to make a call, watch daytime TV. Guantanamo-orange jumpsuits are everywhere.

You don't have to spend much time in the American criminal justice system to become overwhelmed by the waste, the futility and the failure.

Dennis Grimes is the warden at the prison. He has spent 27 years in these places.

"We are always at our capacity," Mr Grimes says. "Always. As soon as we let some of them out there's nearly always that many coming in."

Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate of any US state. One in 55 of its residents are behind bars.

'A party without women'

"It's just been a trend that's kept going," says Mr Grimes as he walks around his prison. "I think they just believe that if you put them in jail, put a criminal in jail, you don't have to worry about them no more."

Does it stop crime?

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We see the children who don't have shoes on their feet - most of the time their father is locked up or dead”
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Lori Hart

Church administrator
"Doesn't seem like it," he laughs, a big dry chuckle going through his big frame. "Doesn't seem like, 'cause this thing is still rolling."

Just under half of those released from prison in the US will be back there within three years. And failure does not come cheap.

It costs $27,000 (£17,650) to hold one prisoner for a year. Last year, US states spent $50bn on incarceration.

Criminal justice professionals have a phrase that sums up the financial challenge: the "million dollar block" - a city neighbourhood where a million dollars a year is spent locking up people from a single block.

And then there is what might be called collateral damage from time spent in prison.

"Like a party without the women" is how Antoine, a former crack dealer, describes it.

The prisons he went to are rife with drugs and rich in criminal-learning experiences.

At 31 years old, he has spent the last 15 years of his life going through the revolving door of state and federal penitentiaries. He saw his two children, now six and 12, in between."