Criminal Justice System Costs and Estimated Cost of Marijuana Arrests, by State (2006)

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  Criminal Justice System Costs* Arrests
Est.
Marijuana
Costs**
State
Total
Police
Courts
Corrections
Total
Marij.
Pct.
Alabama $1,927,002 $923,913 $356,611 $646,478 243,604 12,065 4.95% $95,387
Alaska $605,332 $215,137 $178,152 $212,043 39,478 1,042 2.64% $15,981
Arizona $3,962,848 $1,692,482 $842,057 $1,428,309 329,666 19,377 5.88% $233,015
Arkansas $1,244,468 $505,272 $217,702 $521,494 168,667 7,308 4.33% $53,885
California $31,562,858 $12,878,150 $7,770,580 $10,914,128 1,548,197 65,467 4.23% $1,335,109
Colorado $2,677,286 $1,203,113 $473,587 $1,000,586 262,367 11,576 4.41% $118,068
Connecticut $2,110,406 $905,086 $586,922 $618,398 139,487 7,876 5.65% $119,238
Delaware $678,041 $285,881 $147,424 $244,736 41,937 2,913 6.95% $47,124
District
of Columbia
$770,689 $493,234 $71,897 $205,558 na 3,868 na na
Florida $12,086,516 $5,927,608 $2,111,317 $4,047,591 na na na na
Georgia $4,848,253 $1,961,879 $885,900 $2,000,474 535,883 36,014 6.72% $325,803
Hawaii $703,075 $278,684 $245,069 $179,322 59,720 1,409 2.36% $16,593
Idaho $685,630 $276,192 $148,299 $261,139 74,520 3,140 4.21% $28,865
Illinois $6,688,025 $3,760,869 $1,194,896 $1,732,260 na 51,653 na na
Indiana $2,392,394 $1,038,756 $419,534 $934,104 296,471 18,455 6.22% $148,807
Iowa $1,216,209 $569,506 $287,360 $359,343 127,214 6,749 5.31% $64,581
Kansas $1,299,830 $634,827 $288,607 $376,396 101,973 5,450 5.34% $69,411
Kentucky $1,675,800 $661,847 $384,935 $629,018 269,913 20,106 7.45% $124,847
Louisiana $2,678,811 $1,167,049 $512,914 $998,848 313,372 24,382 7.78% $208,411
Maine $505,717 $221,288 $100,372 $184,057 57,416 3,190 5.56% $28,118
Maryland $3,736,129 $1,604,602 $670,335 $1,461,192 305,651 23,038 7.54% $281,704
Massachusetts $3,712,310 $1,673,394 $897,855 $1,141,061 162,790 10,133 6.22% $230,906
Michigan $5,770,254 $2,332,963 $1,148,449 $2,288,842 353,335 19,973 5.65% $326,019
Minnesota $2,643,347 $1,293,770 $610,777 $738,800 213,219 11,092 5.20% $137,454
Mississippi $1,134,587 $561,138 $196,558 $376,891 192,388 12,749 6.63% $75,223
Missouri $2,433,208 $1,178,945 $449,202 $805,061 378,895 23,966 6.33% $154,022
Montana $490,997 $190,682 $124,716 $175,599 22,155 1,341 6.05% $29,705
Nebraska $769,688 $334,231 $142,344 $293,113 94,012 7,252 7.71% $59,343
Nevada $1,886,975 $889,157 $442,254 $555,564 164,081 6,703 4.09% $77,177
New
Hampshire
$554,009 $274,305 $114,586 $165,118 115,448 3,919 3.39% $18,781
New
Jersey
$6,308,203 $3,010,248 $1,379,112 $1,918,843 388,762 21,734 5.59% $352,629
New
Mexico
$1,234,988 $508,519 $250,460 $476,009 104,623 3,136 3.00% $37,050
New York $15,967,394 $7,585,096 $3,278,219 $5,104,079 898,213 89,023 9.91% $1,582,369
North
Carolina
$4,011,843 $1,916,244 $548,859 $1,546,740 533,414 24,765 4.64% $186,150
North Dakota $239,701 $106,005 $59,736 $73,960 32,025 1,291 4.03% $9,660
Ohio $6,315,116 $2,689,320 $1,631,398 $1,994,398 379,764 24,071 6.34% $400,378
Oklahoma $1,585,880 $672,187 $281,310 $632,383 158,128 12,538 7.93% $125,760
Oregon $2,228,013 $938,292 $368,011 $921,710 151,602 8,338 5.50% $122,541
Pennsylvania $6,799,086 $2,535,358 $1,467,952 $2,795,776 514,630 24,685 4.80% $326,356
Rhode
Island
$632,786 $286,401 $151,589 $194,796 40,375 2,157 5.34% $33,791
South
Carolina
$1,714,326 $854,187 $239,889 $620,250 217,035 18,488 8.52% $146,061
South Dakota $333,652 $131,923 $61,155 $140,574 25,434 1,462 5.75% $19,185
Tennessee $2,626,692 $1,210,316 $520,417 $895,959 340,453 19,185 5.64% $148,145
Texas $11,294,560 $4,873,517 $1,991,393 $4,429,650 1,140,715 66,117 5.80% $655,084
Utah $1,283,805 $544,154 $293,314 $446,337 135,696 4,045 2.98% $38,257
Vermont $294,990 $135,961 $57,718 $101,311 18,146 1,083 5.97% $17,611
Virginia $4,139,349 $1,737,094 $725,356 $1,676,899 324,061 16,771 5.18% $214,418
Washington $3,408,322 $1,328,499 $666,471 $1,413,352 290,650 14,434 4.97% $169,394
West
Virginia
$683,994 $236,901 $192,933 $254,160 67,987 4,238 6.23% $42,613
Wisconsin $3,263,389 $1,434,230 $552,827 $1,276,332 430,105 17,405 4.05% $132,167
Wyoming $429,320 $165,461 $83,697 $180,162 39,620 2,145 5.41% $23,226
United States $178,246,103 $78,833,873 $36,823,027 $62,589,203 14,382,852 829,630 5.77% $10,281,571

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Notes:

*All cost data is expressed in $1000s.

**The estimated costs of marijuana arrests is derived on a share basis. The cost is estimated by mulitplying the percentage of marijuana arrests by the total criminal justice system costs. This method of estimating the criminal justice costs of drug abuse offenses is used by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in their estimates of the overall costs of drug abuse. It is a very general estimation procedure that does not take into account the differences in the amount of resources required to arrest, prosecutre, and incarcerate offendes who have committed various crimes. This estimation procedure is based on an imperfect assumpiton that all arrests place a similar burden on the criminal justice system. While all arrests do share certain general costs, there are many factors that distinguish the costs of arrests for different crimes. Also, this estimation procedure does not take into account the reduced costs of states that issue citations for some marijuana possession offenses involving small personal use quantities.

Because of the general nature of the estimnation of the costs of marijuana arrests used in this table, it is recommended that reference to these figures include information on what percentage of total arrests are represented by marijuana arrests and an explanation of the estimation procedure. For example, “Marijuana arrests account for __ % of all arrests in this state. Total criminal justice costs in this state are %_____ , and at this percentage the cost of marijuana arrests is estimated at $_________.”

Sources:

Bureau of Justice Statistics, Criminal Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts Program (CJEE), Table 4. Justice system expenditure, by character, State, and type of government, fiscal year 2006.

Uniform Crime Reporting Program

More Information on Source Data