Infographic: It Costs More to Go to Prison Than Princeton

PublicAdministration.net published a fascinating and shocking infographic recently comparing prison and Princeton University in New Jersey and other states. According to the infographic, keeping a prisoner for a year in the state’s prion costs $7,000 more than a Princeton student’s tuition.
From 1987 to 2007, 127 percent of U.S. spending went to 2.3 million prisoners while 27 percent of spending went to 16 million college students. Shockingly, the U.S. is sixth in the world for degree attainment and first in the world for incarceration.
All these statistics make me wonder: Are we spending money in the right future? Where would our students be today if they had $44,000-$48,214 to spend on education every year? What’s more, how could we prevent criminals from ever going to prison with increased spending in K-12 education?
View the infographic below:

Created by: Public Administration