The cost of housing an inmate in a federal prison reached $428 per day last year, according to Statistics Canada, though actual expenses are significantly higher when factoring in additional costs such as equipment and staff pensions.Blacklock's Reporter says StatsCan’s data on Operating Expenditures For Adult Correctional Services revealed that the annual cost per inmate in federal penitentiaries amounted to $156,220. Provincial prison costs, meanwhile, showed a wide variation. British Columbia’s per-inmate daily cost was $401, followed by $367 in Ontario, $361 in Québec, and $316 in Manitoba. Alberta had one of the lowest rates at $193 per day. No figures were provided for Newfoundland and Labrador or Prince Edward Island.However, a 2023 report from the Correctional Service of Canada to the Senate’s national finance committee suggested that real costs were even higher. The agency cited per-inmate annual expenses ranging from $128,889 for minimum-security inmates to $284,158 for maximum-security prisoners. Female inmates were among the most expensive, costing $222,942 annually. "Women inmates require different levels of management and intervention as their risks and needs differ," the Correctional Service explained.Tony Matson, Assistant Prison Commissioner, testified to the Senate last October, emphasizing that the system's fixed costs remained high even when prison populations decreased. “We have a large component of our funding that is fixed in nature,” Matson said, while noting inflationary pressures also contribute to rising expenses.Canada’s prison system comprises 16,382 cells but houses an average of 13,000 inmates annually, with 11,000 prison guards employed nationwide. The overall Correctional Service budget for last year stood at $3.2 billion.The Correctional Investigator, in a 2019 report, acknowledged the high cost of Canada’s system, highlighting that Canada’s staff-to-inmate ratio was among the highest in the world. “Nearly four in ten prisons have more full-time employees than inmates,” the report stated, with around 2,000 prison cells sitting vacant across the country.
The cost of housing an inmate in a federal prison reached $428 per day last year, according to Statistics Canada, though actual expenses are significantly higher when factoring in additional costs such as equipment and staff pensions.Blacklock's Reporter says StatsCan’s data on Operating Expenditures For Adult Correctional Services revealed that the annual cost per inmate in federal penitentiaries amounted to $156,220. Provincial prison costs, meanwhile, showed a wide variation. British Columbia’s per-inmate daily cost was $401, followed by $367 in Ontario, $361 in Québec, and $316 in Manitoba. Alberta had one of the lowest rates at $193 per day. No figures were provided for Newfoundland and Labrador or Prince Edward Island.However, a 2023 report from the Correctional Service of Canada to the Senate’s national finance committee suggested that real costs were even higher. The agency cited per-inmate annual expenses ranging from $128,889 for minimum-security inmates to $284,158 for maximum-security prisoners. Female inmates were among the most expensive, costing $222,942 annually. "Women inmates require different levels of management and intervention as their risks and needs differ," the Correctional Service explained.Tony Matson, Assistant Prison Commissioner, testified to the Senate last October, emphasizing that the system's fixed costs remained high even when prison populations decreased. “We have a large component of our funding that is fixed in nature,” Matson said, while noting inflationary pressures also contribute to rising expenses.Canada’s prison system comprises 16,382 cells but houses an average of 13,000 inmates annually, with 11,000 prison guards employed nationwide. The overall Correctional Service budget for last year stood at $3.2 billion.The Correctional Investigator, in a 2019 report, acknowledged the high cost of Canada’s system, highlighting that Canada’s staff-to-inmate ratio was among the highest in the world. “Nearly four in ten prisons have more full-time employees than inmates,” the report stated, with around 2,000 prison cells sitting vacant across the country.
