Increases in Govt Spending More Focused on Corrections than Education

Excerpt from Justice Policy Institute article “Effective Investments in Public Safety: Education”


Increases in government spending are more focused on corrections than on education


In fiscal year 2004, federal, state and local government spending for police protection, corrections and judicial and legal activities—totaling $193 billion—increased 4 percent from the previous year.

The President recently proposed decreasing funding for the Department of Education while increasing spending for the federal prison system

For fiscal year 2007, President Bush requested $54.4 billion in discretionary spending for the Department of Education, a 4.8 percent decrease from 2005. Meanwhile, the Office of Management and Budget estimates that the Department of Justice will spend $4.96 billion on the federal prison system in Fiscal Year 2007, a 4.2 percent increase from 2005.