Guest post on federal sentencing data and costs of incarceration for child porn offenses
"Experienced lawyer and federal sentencing guru Mark Allenbaugh (firm website here) sent me this "accounting" of the latest year-end federal sentencing data:
"Yesterday, the U.S. Sentencing Commission published its Annual Report to Congress, and Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics for fiscal year 2012. Increasingly, this part of the Commission’s work is becoming of central importance to its mission. Indeed, the stats reveal something rather startling, if not outright shocking, about the cost of incarceration.
"Since United States v. Booker, the federal government has spent nearly $30 BILLION on incarceration, which exceeds the GDP of many countries including North Korea. Of this, over $2 BILLION was spent on incarcerating child pornography offenders; 12,115 have been sentenced (not all to imprisonment, but most) under the guidelines since 2006. What makes this rather startling is looking at other major offense categories. For example, in the same period of time, over four times as many people have been sentenced for fraud offenses (54,813), however, the total cost of incarcerating those individuals was almost a billion dollars LESS! ($2.1 billion for child pornography; $1.3 billion for fraud). In other words, incarcerating 12,115 child pornography offenders cost the public fisc $2.1 billion, while incarcerating nearly 55,000 fraud offenders cost (only) $1.3 billion.
"So, why the big difference in cost? Easy. The increasingly longer sentences imposed on child pornography offender than for any other major offense category. What that translates into is that the actual annual cost per offender is far higher for child pornography offenders than for any other major offense category. We spend nearly $25,000 incarcerating child pornography offenders than fraud offenders, who cost only $3,500 per year. Fraud is comparatively cheap because a substantial number do not receive any term of incarceration, and those that do often serve less than a year. Here is a chart showing the AVERAGE sentences over the past 6 years for all major offense categories. A quick glance shows how out of the ordinary child pornography offenses are, or more accurately, how obscenely out of whack they are.
"After spending $2 Billion over the last six years, it’s far past time to rein in this madness. The Commission’s recent report on Federal Child Pornography Offenses effectively disavowing the sentencing guideline for non-production offenses is an enormous leap in the right direction. We simply cannot afford to continue being fiscally foolish on child pornography sentencing; these data put the magnitude of the madness in sharp relief. Hopefully Congress acts quickly to grant the Commission’s wish to have 'enact legislation providing the Commission with express authority to amend the current guideline provisions that were promulgated pursuant to specific congressional directives or legislation directly amending the guidelines.'"
http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2013/04/guest-post-on-federal-sentencing-data-and-costs-of-incarceration-for-child-porn-offenses.html
Thursday, April 11th, 2013
R.I. State Rep. Peter Palumbo says it costs $5,000 to $6,000 to warn Cranston neighbors that a Level 3 sex offender lives in their area
"In 2011, the department sent out notifications for seven Level 2 and four Level 3 sex offenders at a total cost of $7,203. (The chief said the $9,137 figure included registration costs.)
Based on the accounting, that averages out to $655 per offender. The costs were similar whether the offender was designated Level 2 or Level 3."
http://www.politifact.com/rhode-island/statements/2013/may/12/peter-palumbo/ri-state-rep-peter-palumbo-says-it-costs-5000-6000/
PolitiFact R.I. finds problems in claims about sex offender notification costs
http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2013/05/politifact-ri-finds-problems-in-claims-about-sex-offender-notification-cost.html
Politifact Rules False Palumbo Claim about Sex Offender Notification
http://cranston.patch.com/articles/politifact-rules-false-palumbo-claim-about-sex-offender-notification
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