Alaska’s prison population is growing, but as the state’s Criminal Justice Commission told legislators during a hearing Tuesday, it’s not because more people are coming into the system. They’re staying longer.
The Senate Finance Committee listened to a presentation by the Pew Charitable Trust on data from Alaska’s Department of Corrections over the last 10 years. The state’s prison population has grown 10 percent over the last decade. As Terry Schuster with Pew explains, that’s three times faster than the state’s overall population growth.
“That growth is not being caused by more people coming into the prison system. You actually have [fewer] people coming into the prison system. The growth is driven by how long they are staying. What we see is people are about a month longer in prison for
a drug crime or a property crime than they used to. For alcohol offenses and public order offenses, they’re spending about three months longer than they used to.”
It costs the state $142 a day to house every prisoner, amounting to $327 million last year. The Pew Charitable Trust is helping the state’s Criminal Justice Commission come up with recommendations for how to change the current system, which is on track to grow by 27 percent in the next decade.
“Again, the question for policymakers, the question for the Criminal Justice Commission is: what are you getting for that extra month in terms of improved outcomes? What are you getting for that extra three months? And could you spend that money in a different way and get better outcomes?”
The Criminal Justice Commission is meeting three more times this fall ahead of issuing recommendations in December, before the start of the legislative session.
