To the delight of defense attorneys, and the contempt of prosecutors, Missouri has decided to inform its judges, before they hand down sentences, how much it will cost to imprison convicted criminals versus the expense of putting them on probation.

 

For example, a judge deciding what to do with someone convicted of endangering a child will know that a three-year prison sentence will cost the state $37,000, while sentencing them to probation will cost only $6,770.

 

Missouri is the first state to provide judges with financial data relating to individual cases. Fiscal conservatives love the idea, because it may lead to fewer inmates in penitentiaries and smaller prison budgets. But district attorneys loathe the decision to factor costs into sentencing procedures.

 

“Justice isn’t subject to a mathematical formula,” Robert McCulloch, prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, told The New York Times.

 

On the other hand, Cathy Kelly, of the Missouri Public Defender System, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,“Sometimes alternative sentences are needed to get them out of the cycle as opposed to throwing them in a cell and throwing money at the problem….The state is going bankrupt, and ... we're spending millions and millions on prison sentences that have proven not to work.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Missouri Tells Judges Cost of Sentences (by Monica Davey, New York Times)

Missouri Judges Get Penalty Cost before Sentencing (by Heather Ratcliffe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)