State Prison Health Care Spending

According to The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, correctional health care spending rose in 41 states from 2007 to 2011, with median growth of 13 percent. Spending on a per-inmate basis also rose in most states during that time, with median growth of 10 percent. In a majority of states, however, total spending and per-inmate health care spending peaked before 2011. Nationwide, prison health care spending totaled $7.7 billion in 2011, down from a peak of $8.2 billion in 2009, after adjusting for inflation. The downturn in spending was due in part to a reduction in state prison populations. From 2007 to 2011, the share of older inmates rose in all but two of the 42 states that submitted data. Not surprisingly, states where older inmates represented a relatively large share of the population tended to have higher per-inmate spending.


Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation