Inmates cost the U.S. government more than $8 billion a year and that number seem to be going up. Of the BOP’s nearly 154,000 prisoners, 24,000 of them are minimum security. BOP stated that the average cost of housing a minimum security prisoner in 2024 was $151.02 per day. The cost of housing someone in a U.S. penitentiary is $164.87 per day (the lows were $129.72 per day, with mediums being $122.50 per day). Since there are more minimum security prisoners than high, the total costs of housing minimum security prisoners far exceeds the costs of housing those in high security.
One of the purposes of incarceration is working with inmates to make sure they never come back to prison. That is difficult when so many find themselves back in a vicious cycle of having no other options other than crime. However, in federal prison camps, many people move on after the experience and become productive citizens.
So what does the tax payer get back for this investment to bring back a contributing member of society? It turns out, a lot.
Success Stories
There are many success stories of people who move on after prison. Martha Stewart (Entrepreneur, a best-selling author, an Emmy Award–winning television show host), Lauryn Hill, Josh Smith (current deputy director of the Bureau of Prisons) and Alice Johnson (Pardon Czar). Each worked hard to reinvent themselves or use the pause of prison to reflect on how they could be better.
Prison is very much a self-paced experience. While there are programs in prison, most are optional as there is little required to be in good standing with the BOP. In fact, the only class that federal inmates are required to take is the high school equivalency. However, many inmates find their purpose in prison but continuing to fulfill those goals in prison to make them a reality in the outside world is difficult.
Meet Jamila Davis
Many inmates, particularly those from minimum security camps, move on with their lives after prison. When I first reported on Jamila Davis in 2015, the country was still reckoning with the fallout of the 2008 mortgage crisis. While no big banks had anyone from their ranks sent to prison, many small players paid the price.
While major financial institutions absorbed losses and senior executives largely avoided prison, criminal accountability fell heavily on a small number of individuals. Davis was one of them.
She received a twelve-and-a-half-year, yes year, federal sentence for bank fraud connected to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a punishment that stood out at a time when few individuals tied to the crisis received comparable sentences. Her case became a visible symbol of post-crisis accountability, even as broader institutional consequences remained limited.
Nearly a decade later, Davis, now Dr. Jamila T. Davis after receiving her doctorate in Philosophy with a specialization in Christian Life Coaching, has helped change state law.
On Jan. 20, 2026, just hours before New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy left office, the state enacted the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act and a companion expungement bill. In the same narrow window, Natasha White, a domestic violence survivor whose incarceration had become emblematic of the legislation’s purpose, was granted clemency.
The First Step Act
Congress intended for inmates to be more productive in prison with hopes that they would never return. The First Step Act was a monumental piece of legislation that not only provided meaningful programming to inmates but also provided an incentive for them to reduce their prison term. While there have been issues with implementing the First Step Act, things have progressed over the past year and more people are returning to their community sooner.
The First Step Act allocates over $100 million for programming efforts and much of that is spent directly on education of inmates. Inmates also come up with their own classes to take ranging from how to write a business plan to ways to improve your health. These programs are also recognized by the Bureau of Prisons as a productive activities that help inmates earn time off of their sentence. The goal is that the time put into training leads to not only reduced time in prison (expensive) but also hopes that people will not return to prison with future offenses.
The High Cost Of Recidivism
Recidivism carries significant financial, social, and human costs that extend far beyond the individual who reoffends. At the most direct level, reincarceration is expensive. The average annual cost to house a person in federal prison is tens of thousands of dollars, and in many states the cost is even higher when healthcare, security, and facility maintenance are included. When people cycle repeatedly through prison, taxpayers bear the cost of arrest, prosecution, court proceedings, incarceration, and supervision, often multiple times for the same individual.
There are also indirect economic costs. People who return to prison are removed from the workforce, reducing overall productivity and tax contributions. Families lose income and financial stability, increasing reliance on public assistance. Children of incarcerated parents face higher risks of poverty, behavioral challenges, and future justice system involvement, creating intergenerational economic strain.
Public safety costs are another dimension. Recidivism means new victims, new investigations, and renewed trauma for communities. Law enforcement agencies and courts must devote resources to repeated cases rather than prevention or other priorities. High recidivism rates can also undermine public confidence in the justice system’s ability to rehabilitate.
Beyond dollars, there are human costs. Repeated incarceration disrupts family relationships, housing stability, and mental health. Each return to prison can deepen institutionalization and reduce the likelihood of long term reintegration.
Reassessing Impact
For Jamila Davis, who used every tool in her toolbox, she has made a comeback that has truly earned her this second chance. Few would say that Davis punishment was fair, but all would say her return is nothing short of amazing.
An individual removed from society for more than a decade generated federally adopted educational programming, state-level legislative reform, workforce development infrastructure, and measurable reductions in reentry barriers for survivors.
The story once framed around punishment now includes a different data point: evidence that systems, like markets, can misjudge assets—and that the cost of getting it wrong can far exceed the cost of reconsideration.
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