The New York Times > Opinion > The Price of Prisons: "The Price of Prisons
Published: June 26, 2004
Prisons and Prisoners
Mental Health and Disorders
hirteen million Americans have been convicted of felonies and spent time in prison � more than the population of Greece. And they tend to return to prison again and again. Of the 650,000 inmates who will be released in 2004, two-thirds will be back behind bars within few years. The cost of keeping so many in jail � the operating expenses for state prisons alone is around $30 billion a year � has created bipartisan concern. Congress, which spent so many years obsessed with how to look tough on crime, is currently considering legislation that would tackle two of the big factors behind the revolving-door phenomenon: the huge number of mentally ill people in prison, and the difficulty ex-convicts have in carving out new lives in the law-abiding world. "
