With the annual cost of American correctional systems being well over $73 billion per year, roughly $85 per day for each single inmate; as only 14% is covered by the Federal Bureau of prisons and the other 86% left to the states to support, reported as of last year the correctional system houses over 1,466,933 adult male and female offenders throughout 1600 prisons across the country. Of course it would only be rational to decide whether the offender that is housed in such facilities should be required to support their upkeep and stay as well as her medical costs while imprisoned, in which in my opinion I feel that it would be beneficial for all parties involved for inmates to be responsible for contributing to their housing, upkeep and medical costs; as it can increase prison systems revenue to cover such costs that are not accessible within state and federal reimbursements. As according to the American Correctional Facilities the pay to stay, debate inmates must take financial responsibility as Michelle Sanborn explains, “that such system can also be vital tools in curbing recidivism rates”, further explaining that “institutionalizing offenders is sometimes not enough of a deterrent. Inmates must accept some financial responsibility in the reimbursement of their housing, thus taking the first step in becoming productive members of their community”(Ball, 2014).However there has been some issues with the system arguing that it violates human rights within the prison system, as stated in an article entitled Profiting From Probation: Americas Offender Funded Probation Industry, explained in great detail how privatization of probation services have corrupt the prison systems by punishing poor offenders who simply cannot afford to make steady payments of their fees and court ordered fines associate it with their crimes, and are now ending up back in the prison system creating a huge financial catch twenty-two.
