Financial Impact of the Death Penalty
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In 2011, the average cost of a drug used in lethal injections was around $83.55 per dose.
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By 2013, authorities in Texas paid $1,500; in Missouri, they paid $8,000;
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in 2017, Virginia agreed to pay $16,500 per dose due to EU companies decrease in lethal injection chemical production according to according to a 2021 study
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This trend indicates that the cost of lethal injection might just as well have doubled its 2017 price
Bar plot indicating the subcategorized costs to facilitate an inmate. This is the baseline, tacked on to other fees required for legal representation, execution, or further imprisonment.
​Furthermore, according to the same article:
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"In Kansas, the median cost for death penalty trials is over $500,000 each, compared to about $33,000 for non-death penalty cases. The cost of the full case in which the death penalty is sought is, on average, $1.2 million, compared to $740,000 for non-death penalty cases.
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In Oklahoma, the average capital case costs 3.2 times more than the average non-capital case. It also costs twice as much to keep offenders on death row than not on death row.
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In Maryland, taxpayers paid $186 million more to prosecute death penalty cases than non-death penalty cases between 1978 and 1999. The average cost per case was $3 million, compared to $1.1 million for cases where the death penalty was not sought. Only five prisoners were executed during that time"
For Perspective:
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Norway spent $129,222 per prisoner in 2018 according to their official records, referenced here
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California spends $81,203 per person as of 2020 according to an LA prison report
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Federal US prisoners were $36,299.25 in 2017
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Norway had 49 prisoners per 100,000 people in 2020
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639 per 100,000 U.S. citizens
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104 per 100,000 Canadian citizen
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Average annual federal incarceration cost of $37,449.00
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In 2020 due to Trump’s executive executions Federal Bureau of Prisons spent nearly $4.7 million dollars on the first five executions
General statistics following the United States information (as well as other countries like Canada) presented can be referenced here and here.
Image from maximum security facility, Halden Prison, in Norway
Here, we compare the per capita cost of an inmate to what would commonly be considered other heavy per capita investments. This bar plot demonstrates how the baseline cost to house an inmate singlehandedly supersedes