Sidra L. Gifford, Sue A. Lindgren

November 1, 1999    NCJ 178235

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 1995 and national trend data for 1980 to 1995. Expenditure data are provided for fiscal year 1995; employment and payroll data are for the month of October 1995.

The report compares justice expenditure to spending for other governmental services, adjusts the data for inflation, and analyzes trends in justice spending and employment. It presents expenditure data per capita and number of employees per 10,000 population for each State. It also presents the average monthly earnings by State and by level of government. Survey methodology and definitions used are briefly discussed. The data in the report are comparable to those published in the 1980-95 Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts.

Highlights include the following:

• Federal, State, and local governments in the United States spent more than $112 billion in fiscal year 1995 for criminal and civil justice, an increase of 9% over 1994.
• In 1995 the Nation spent $48.6 billion for police protection, and $39.8 billion for corrections, including jails, prisons, probation, and parole. The combined activities of courts, prosecution and legal services, and public defense accounted for $24.5 billion.
• The Federal Government alone spent more than $22 billion on criminal and civil justice in 1995, an increase of 253% since 1985. This included about $5.9 billion for grants to State and local governments. About $9 billion was spent on police protection and $4.2 billion on corrections.

Part of the Justice Expenditure and Employment Series

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