Marijuana Prison Cost Runs in the Millions

Two years after possession of small amounts of marijuana was decriminalized, people are still going to prison on marijuana-related offenses — and taxpayers are paying for it at an estimated cost of at least hundreds of thousands each year. On April 1, 2013, possession of one ounce or less of marijuana was decriminalized. But possession of greater amounts and other marijuana-related charges remain on the books as criminal offenses in Rhode Island. Department of Corrections records obtained in response to a public records request show that marijuana-related offenses are landing a significant number of Rhode Islanders in the state prison system. In the last fiscal year, which ran from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2015, 109 people found themselves in prison on a marijuana-related offense only. Of those, a dozen were serving their sentences. The remaining 97 were awaiting trial.

Those numbers came as surprise to noted local criminal defense attorney Bob Mann, who supports marijuana legalization. “Frankly, I’m surprised they’re that high,” Mann told Motif. “How sad it is … that people are still being locked up for marijuana,” he added, noting that the state is sending mixed messages to the public in only partially decriminalizing marijuana.

State officials do not track incarceration costs by offense, but the department does publish data on the daily and annual costs, broken down by facility. So, for example, in fiscal year 2014 — the most recent available — it cost taxpayers $53,462 a year to house a single offender at the state’s minimum security facility. Assuming that marijuana offenders would be in minimum security, that means that the annual cost of incarcerating just the dozen already sentenced would be $641,544 in the last fiscal year — an estimate that quickly runs into the millions over the course of several years.

Nailing down the cost of keeping the 97 people awaiting trial is a bit trickier. It would be unfair and unrealistic to assume that they are spending the whole year waiting for their day in court. So just how long does it take?

The median wait time is three days. It costs $108.21 a day to keep someone at the Intake Service Center — the catch-all facility for those awaiting their trials as well as other categories of prisoners, such as those who are held in protective custody. At that daily rate and assuming a typical wait time of three days, those 97 detainees cost taxpayers $31,489 last year.

But what if there were delays in the cases for those offenders?

While the typical wait time is three days, the average wait time — which takes into account the extremely long and short stays — is 23 days. At 23 days, the 97 awaiting trial would cost taxpayers a significantly higher $241,416. When that cost is combined with the cost for the dozen who were already sentenced, that brings us pretty close to a million a year to imprison people for marijuana ($914,449, to be exact). And even that doesn’t fully account for the expenses.

A closer look at the numbers provided by the department reveals that of the 97 classified as awaiting trial, 17 of them already had their trials and have been sentenced. They just haven’t left the Intake Service Center because they have yet to be assigned to one of the long-term prison facilities. So we know those 17 are going to be spending longer than 23 days in the state prison system. Assuming they are moved into the minimum security facility this year, that will be another $908,854 in upcoming costs for taxpayers — far higher than the cost of the dozen who were sentenced this year.

Even so, we’re not quite there yet. So far, we’ve just been looking at marijuana-only offenders. But many offenders have a number of offenses in addition to marijuana. When they are included, that gives us 314 people awaiting trial and 34 sentenced who have a marijuana-offense. (Note that these figures are for January to December 2014, unlike the marijuana-only figures.)

The additional time their marijuana offense adds to their overall sentence further drives up the incarceration costs of marijuana, but without more data on the other offenses, it’s difficult to know for sure just how much.

While those costs are just a fraction of the overall cost the $195 million the state spent on its prisons last year, they are nonetheless significant enough to constitute yet another reason for the full legalization of marijuana, according to state Senator Josh Miller, whose district encompasses portions of Providence and Cranston.

“There’s several good reasons to do this and one of the most critical is the cost of incarceration,” Miller told Motif. He said he remains committed to pushing for passage of marijuana legalization in the next legislation session, which begins in January. Legalization will not only save taxpayers money, Miller noted, but the resulting taxes that will be imposed on marijuana will become another source of revenue. He pointed to yet a third financial benefit: Some of the funds raised from the taxes or saved in prison costs could also be used to provide the treatment drug addicts really need.