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Expenditure & employment facts at a glance

Expenditure and Employment Statistics

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Summary findings | Publications | Selected statistics |
About the data collections | Related sites

See Data Online for Expenditure and Employment data.

Summary findings

Local governments spend more on criminal justice than state governments or the federal government.

Direct expenditure by level of government, 1982-2006

Direct expenditure for each of the major criminal justice functions (police, corrections, judicial) has been steadily increasing.

Direct expenditures by criminal justice function, 1982-2006

In fiscal year 2006, federal, state, and local governments spent an estimated $214 billion for police protection, corrections, and judicial and legal activities, a 5.1% increase over the previous year.
In fiscal year 2006, state and local governments spent a combined 83% of all direct justice dollars; the federal government spent the rest.
The federal government spent more than $36 billion on direct expenditures for criminal and civil justice in fiscal year 2006. State governments spent over $69 billion and local governments spent over $109 billion.

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This list is in order of the most recent publication first. Additional titles are listed on other topical pages and a comprehensive list is contained on the BJS publications page. To see a full abstract of a publication with links to electronic versions of the publication, click on the title below.

Justice Expenditure and Employment Statistical Extracts series, Presents data from the Census Bureau's Annual Government Finance Survey and Annual Survey of Public Employment. This series provides national, state-by-state, and federal data for government expenditures and employment for the following justice systems: police protection, all judicial services (prosecution, courts, and public defense), and corrections. Data are also included for counties with populations of 500,000 or more and cities with populations of 300,000 or more. The unit of analysis is the government. For example, corrections employment data reported for any particular state represents the total of all correctional personnel employed by that state, regardless of which prison, probation office, or other corrections agency employs them.

In electronic formats only:

2006, 12/08 NCJ 224394
2005, 08/07 NCJ 219370

2004, 12/06 NCJ 215648
2003, 12/05. NCJ 212350
2002, 6/05. NCJ 209179
2001, 12/03. NCJ 202792
2000, 12/03. NCJ 194802
1999, 12/01. NCJ 194802
1998, 10/01. NCJ 190641
1997, 11/00. NCJ 185672
1996, 03/00. NCJ 180883
1995, 11/99. NCJ 175706
1994, 08/99. NCJ 175706
1993, 08/99. NCJ 163068

Justice Expenditure and Employment in the U.S. 2003, 04/06. Provides selected data from the Census Bureau's Annual General Finance and Employment Surveys. Data presented include police protection, judicial and legal services, and corrections expenditure and employment for federal, state, and local governments in 2003 and national trend data for 1982 to 2003. NCJ 212260

Justice Expenditure and Employment in the U.S. 2001, 05/04. NCJ 202792
Justice Expenditure and Employment in the U.S. 1999, 02/02. NCJ 191746
Justice Expenditure and Employment in the U.S. 1995, 11/99. NCJ 178235

Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program, 2005, 7/05. Describes the steps used in the JAG formula calculation process and presents summary results of the FY 2005 formula calculations. NCJ 209333

Local Law Enforcement Block Grant Program, 1996-2004, 09/04. Outlines how the formulas are calculated under the LLEBG Program to make funds available to local governments for reducing crime and improving public safety. NCJ 203096

State Prison Expenditures, 2001, 06/04. Presents comparative data on the cost of operating the nation's state prisons. The study is based on institutional corrections elements of the Fiscal 2001 Survey of Government Finances which state budget officers reported to the U.S. Census Bureau. NCJ 202949

State Prison Expenditures, 1996, 8/99. NCJ 172211

Justice Variable Passthrough Data, 1997, 11/01. Presents the variable passthrough (VPT) data used to calculate the amounts states distribute to their local governments under the Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Programs. NCJ 190359

Indigent Defense Services in Large Counties, 1999, 11/00. Describes the methods by which criminal indigent defense is delivered in the nation's 100 most populous counties. NCJ 184932

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Selected statistics

Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts (20 spreadsheets and explanatory text in a zip archive)
1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999
2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006
Trends in Justice Expenditure and Employment (12 spreadsheets and explanatory text in a zip archive.) Individual versions of these spreadsheets may be downloaded from the Crime & Justice Electronic Data Abstracts.

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BJS Expenditure and Employment Data Collections

Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts series
Since 1980, these data have been extracted from the Census Bureau's Annual Government Finance Survey and Annual Survey of Public Employment. This series includes national and state-by-state estimates of government expenditures and employment for the following justice categories: police protection, all judicial (including prosecution, courts, and public defense), and corrections. Federal data for the same categories are also included, as are data for the largest local governments (counties with populations of 500,000 or more and cities with populations of 300,000 or more). The unit of analysis in the CJEE is the government. For example, the corrections employment reported for any particular state represents the total of all correctional personnel employed by that state regardless of which prison, probation office, or other corrections agency employ them.
Annually since 1980

Codebook and datasets

Justice Assistance Data Survey (formerly Justice Expenditure and Employment Survey)
This direct survey of governments collects detailed justice expenditure data. These data are the basis for calculating variable passthrough estimates needed to distribute the formula funds of the Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Program administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. Less detailed annual expenditure and employment data are available in the Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts series which produce similar but not statistically comparable data. Comparability issues are described in Appendix 2 of the 1992 Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts report and in a text file provided with the zip archive for the 1993-99 and trends spreadsheets. Prior to 1997, this survey was called the Justice Expenditure and Employment Survey, and collected detailed employment data in addition to expenditure data.
1971-79, 1985, 1988, 1990, and 1997

Codebooks and Datasets

Expenditure and employment data from other BJS sources
Other BJS series collect agency-based employment and expenditure data that allow the development of workload measures, ratios of employees to clients, and ratios of dollars per service delivered. These include --

Because of collection methods, units of analysis, and data collection purposes the estimates produced from these sources may differ from those produced by the CJEE.

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Related Sites

U.S. Census Bureau Governments Statistics
Tribal Justice and Safety in Indian Country Website from the Office of Justice Programs

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Page last revised on December 19, 2008