Cost of incarceration in the U.S. more than $1 trillion -- ScienceDaily

The cost of incarceration in the United States exceeds $1 trillion, or six percent of gross domestic product, and dwarfs the amount spent on corrections alone, finds a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.

"The $80 billion spent annually on corrections is frequently cited as the cost of incarceration, but this figure considerably underestimates the true cost by ignoring important social costs," said Carrie Pettus-Davis, assistant professor at the Brown School and an expert on incarceration.