Incarceration Ain’t Cheap- Update for December 31, 2025

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

PAY THE MAN, SHIRLEY (ONCE AGAIN)

I am shamelessly reusing Norman Chad’s homage to sportswriter Shirley Povich for another week.

Two weeks ago, the Bureau of Prisons printed the Annual COIF (Cost of Incarceration Fee) in the Federal Register.  This annual ritual reports on how much it costs the BOP (using whatever voodoo accounting the government may command that can figure for sunk costs of facilities) to lock someone up for a year.  The number assumes that keeping someone in the FCI Florence Supermax costs the same as keeping a prisoner at a camp, but imperfect data is probably better than no data at all.

The BOP reported that “[b]ased on FY 2024 data, the average annual COIF for a Federal inmate housed in a Bureau or non-Bureau facility in FY 2024 was $47,162 ($129.21 per day). The average annual COIF for a Federal inmate housed in a Residential Reentry Center for FY 2024 was $43,703 ($119.73 per day). (Please note: There were 366 days in FY 2024.)”

The COIF never accounts for the cost of home confinement. The best number available is from the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts: home confinement supervision costs $4,742 a year ($12.96 in FY 2024).

BOP, Annual Determination of Average Cost of Incarceration Fee (COIF) (December 15, 2025)

Administrative Office of US Courts, The Public Costs of Supervision Versus Detention (June 5, 2025)

~ Thomas L. Root