Tuesday, August 31, 2010

How Much Can Prop 19 Save CA in Criminal Justice Costs?

How much Prop 19 will save California in prison costs is up for debate. But there are other ways Prop 19 can save (not make) California some serious money. If you look at the criminal justice system (not just prison overcrowding) as a whole, California stands to save a significant amount of money under Prop 19. Here’s how:

As discussed in my previous post “How Many Arrests will Prop 19 Stop?” there are 61,388 arrests for misdemeanor marijuana offenses in California every year. 46.7% of these arrests are of people that won’t be protected by Prop 19. But right now, the remaining arrests are more important. Of the remaining 32,684 “arrests” there are 5 crimes for which people are being arrested. Since the DOJ doesn’t release offense specific statistics, I don’t know how many arrests were for each crime. But in my professional experience, there are far more people being “arrested” for possession of one ounce or less than any of the 4 other misdemeanor marijuana offenses. Two of the offenses would be legalized under Prop 19: possession of less than one ounce and possession of concentrated cannabis. If we split it up evenly (unlikely, but hey, it might be the best we can do) that would mean at least 2/5ths of the arrests would stop. Personally, I think this is very low. But nevertheless, that is 13,074 “arrests.” What does this translate to in savings?

1. Arresting cop’s salary $38/hour (minimum half hour they spend “arresting” someone) times 13,074 arrests = $248,406 per YEAR MINIMUM.
2. For the arrests that don’t end up just citations (we’re using half as our example), there is a booking cop’s salary $38/hour (minimum half hour they spend booking someone) times 6,537 arrests = $124,203.
3. Intake DA’s salary $50/hour (minimum 15 minutes they spend deciding whether to charge someone or not) times 13,074 arrests =  $163,425.
4. Supervising DA who assigns the case $80/hour (minimum 6 minutes they spend deciding) times 13,074 arrests = $104,592.
5. Charging DA $50/hour (minimum hour they spend reading the file and dealing with the defendant in court) times 13.074 arrests = $653,700.
6. Judge who takes your plea $125/hour (minimum 15 minutes they spend dealing with defendant in court) times 13,074 arrests = $1,634,250.
7. Various court clerks $25/hour (minimum hour they spend writing up your file, typing information into the computer, taking your plea, receiving your fine payments, etc) times 13,074 arrests = $326,850.
8. Public Defender $50/hour (who spent a minimum of an hour to make sure you didn’t get totally screwed) times 6,537 arrests (assuming only half the people used a public defender) = $326,850.

There are other costs, but they are much more speculative, so I won’t include them.  But even my low ball estimate is a savings of $3,582,276 for misdemeanor marijuana offenses PER YEAR.


Let’s repeat this with felonies. There are 11,743 felonies up for discussion. There are 6 felonies (7 if you include the wobbler of concentrated cannabis). 3 of them will still be crimes under Prop 19. 3 may or may not be – depending on your local municipality. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the last 3 crimes all become legal across the state. Let’s also say, for the sake of argument, that the 6 crimes are spread evenly across the arrests. This leaves us with 5,871.5 arrests that will end under Pro 19. So, what does this translate to in savings?

1. Arresting cop’s salary $38/hour (minimum hour & half they spend “arresting” someone) times 5,871.5 arrests = $334,676.
2. Booking cop’s salary $38/hour (minimum half hour they spend booking someone) times 5,871.5 arrests = $111,559.
3. Intake DA’s salary $50/hour (minimum half hour they spend deciding whether to charge someone or not) times 5,871.5 arrests =  $146,788.
4. Supervising DA who assigns the case $80/hour (minimum 18 minutes they spend deciding) times 5,871.5 arrests = $140,916.
5. Charging DA $50/hour (minimum 5 hours they spend reading the file and dealing with the defendant in court) times 5,871.5 arrests = $1,467,875.
6. Judge who takes your plea $125/hour (minimum hour they spend dealing with defendant in court) times 5,871.5 arrests = $733,938.
7. Various court clerks $25/hour (minimum 2 hours they spend writing up your file, typing information into the computer, taking your plea, etc) times 5871.5 arrests = $293,575.
8. Public Defender $50/hour (who spent a minimum of 10 hours to make sure you didn’t get totally screwed) times 2,936 arrests (assuming only half the people used a public defender) = $1,468,000.

Again, there are other more speculative costs, so I won’t include them.  But even my low ball estimate is a savings of $4,697,327 for felony marijuana offenses PER YEAR.

So that is a grand total of: $8,279,603. Even though this is hardly a bump in the criminal justice costs per year, imagine what we could do with $8.3 million of savings in this state. Not to mention, this numbers will easily increase if you consider that most of the time estimates are very low. And some of the salaries probably are too.



For a discussion on the social costs/benefits of Prop 19 see:


3 comments:

  1. $8279603 + Dollars earned from taxation of the herb= ?

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  2. This completely ignores lost productivity of those arrested. It also ignores the redirection of funds that would be otherwise spent on legitimate business in the community into the legal system. Also, what are the cost savings from reducing the number of prisons operating, not just the lower number of prisoners?

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  3. "Also, what are the cost savings from reducing the number of prisons operating, not just the lower number of prisoners?"

    The only people going to prison for marijuana offenses are those that are convicted of marijuana related felonies. Of the over 17,000 arrests for felony marijuana, we know that some do not get convicted and some will not receive prison time if they do. So, the number of actual prisoners in jail for marijuana is lower than 17,000. Given the already overcrowding in our prison system, Prop 19 won't reduce the number of prisons in operation.

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