U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin November 1999, NCJ 178235 Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 1995 By Lea S. Gifford BJS Statistician with assistance from Sue A. Lindgren BJS Statistician Most of the tables in this report are not included in this text version. They are available in the pdf version or in spreadsheet format at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/jeeus95.htm. This report is one in a series. More recent editions may be available. To view a list of all in the series go to http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pubalp2.htm#jee Between 1985 and 1995 expenditures for operating the Nation's justice system increased from almost $65 billion to over $112 billion, an increase of about 73% in constant 1995 dollars. In 1995, criminal and civil justice expenditure comprised 4.4% of all Federal, State, and local expenditures. Data presented in this report are derived from the Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts, a compilation from the Census Bureau's Annual Government Finance Survey and Annual Survey of Public Employment. The extracts present public expenditure and employment data pertaining to justice activities in the United States, including police, judicial and legal services, and correctional activities. Compared to justice expenditures, the Nation spent 5.6 times as much on social insurance payments, 3.4 times as much on education, 2.7 times as much on national defense and international relations, 2.4 times as much on interest on debt, 2.1 times as much on public welfare, and 1.3 times as much on housing and the environment. -------------------------------------------------------------- Highlights *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. * State governments spent more than $41 billion on criminal and civil justice in 1995, 153% more than in 1985. The majority was spent on corrections, at more than $26 billion. * Local governments spent nearly $59 billion on justice activities in 1995. The largest component was on police protection, at more than $35 billion. * In October 1995 the Nation's justice system employed almost 2 million persons, with a total October payroll of $5.8 billion. More than 900,000 employees worked in police protection, 401,000 were in judicial and legal services, and 656,000 worked in corrections. -----------------End of highlights------------------- The justice share of all spending Four cents (or 4.4%) of every government dollar spent throughout the Nation in 1995 was for justice activities: 1.8% for police protection, 1.7% for corrections, and 0.9% for judicial and legal services (table 1). One of the lowest percentages of Federal Government expenditure was for criminal and civil justice (1.1%). In 1995, 37.9% of Federal spending went to social insurance, 22.2% to national defense and international relations, and 15.8% to interest on debt (figure 1). Compared to the Federal Government, State and local governments had higher percentages going for justice activities, 7.4% and 7.9% respectively. Fifteen percent of combined State and local dollars went to public welfare and 31% went to education. Of all State and local spending, 3.3% was for police, 2.9% was for corrections, and 1.5% was for judicial and legal service activities. From 1994 to 1995 justice spending increased more than total government spending for all activities (excluding interest on debt). Between 1985 and 1995 per capita expenditures across all levels of government in 1995 constant dollars for -- * all justice activities rose 57% to $429.56 * police protection rose 35% to $185.13 * corrections rose 99% to $151.29 * judicial and legal rose 56% to $93.14. Among some other government functions during the decade -- * education increased 78% * public welfare increased 139% * hospitals and healthcare increased 88% * National defense and international relations increased 3%. Changes in per capita expenditure on corrections have been more erratic than changes in spending on judicial/legal services and police between 1985 and 1995, mainly due to the year-to-year fluctuation in capital outlays, including the cost of prison construction. Between 1985 and 1995 the Federal government increased its expenditure on police protection by 121%, judicial/legal services by 152%, and corrections by 326%. The State and local governments combined increased their police protection expenditure by 96%, their judicial/legal services by 127%, and their corrections by 179%. Spending by level of government Local governments spent over half of the Nation's civil and criminal direct justice expenditures in 1995: almost $59 billion, followed by State governments with $37.4 billion and the Federal Government with $16.7 billion (table 2). Reflecting a change in responsibility for criminal and civil justice, the Federal Government had a larger average annual increase in justice spending from 1982 to 1995 (9%) than the State and local governments (6.3% and 4.5% respectively). The average annual increase for all levels of government between 1982 and 1995 was 5.3%. Between 1982 and 1995, the Federal Government increased its intergovernmental spending on justice activities by an annual average of 24%, to $5,910 million in 1995. Federal intergovernmental spending on activities such as corrections and judicial and legal services rose from $564 million in 1989 to almost $3 billion in 1990 (in 1995 constant dollars). This unusually large increase was primarily due to the creation of the Family Services Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services which gives grants to States for child support enforcement. Within each category of justice activity, the distribution of expenditure by level of government reflects the different responsibilities of each level (table 3): * Police protection is primarily a local responsibility; accordingly, local governments spent 72.7% of the total police protection expenditure in the country in 1995. * Corrections is primarily a State responsibility, and the State governments accounted for 65.6% of the Nation's corrections expenditure. * Overall, local police spending represented 31.3% of the Nation's total justice expenditure, and State corrections accounted for the second largest portion, 23.1%. The Federal Government spent the most on intergovernmental grants-in-aid, shared revenues, and amounts paid to another government for services performed. More than half of the Federal intergovernmental expenditure was for judicial and legal services, much of which were the grants for child support enforcement. About half of the State intergovernmental expenditure and more than two-thirds of local intergovernmental expenditure were for corrections. -------------------------------------------------------------- What is included in total expenditure? The expenditure data discussed in this Bulletin include direct expenditure and intergovernmental expenditure. Intergovernmental expenditure is the sum of payments from one government to another, including grants-in-aid, shared revenues, and amounts for services performed by one government for another on a reimbursable or cost-sharing basis. The three levels of government in the United States (Federal, State, and local) have varying responsibilities for justice activities, and monies are often passed between governments to reflect these responsibilities. For example, Federal intergovernmental expenditures include grants to States, and State direct expenditures will include those grants. Therefore, to avoid double counting the sum of Federal, State, and local intergovernmental expenditures, the direct expenditure is used to calculate total expenditure for all governments. or 1995 the total expenditure for all governments was $112,868 million (table 2). --------------------------------------------------------------- State comparisons Across the Nation, State and local governments spent $354 per capita on justice activities. This ranged from $156 per capita in West Virginia to more than $500 per capita in New York ($542), Alaska ($773), and the District of Columbia ($1,224) (table 4). Table 4. State and local justice system per capita expenditure, by State, fiscal year 1995 Justice expenditure Rank State per capita 1 District of Columbia $1,223.71 2 Alaska 772.66 3 New York 541.86 4 Maryland 493.47 5 California 487.12 6 New Jersey 462.01 7 Nevada 458.44 8 Florida 436.72 9 Delaware 409.25 10 Connecticut 385.83 11 Arizona 383.24 12 Hawaii 381.94 13 Michigan 362.73 14 Rhode Island 359.72 All State and local 353.95 15 Massachusetts 348.86 16 Texas 340.30 17 Illinois 331.28 18 Wisconsin 330.19 19 Washington 328.69 20 New Mexico 328.44 21 Ohio 326.39 22 Colorado 319.00 23 Oregon 310.28 24 North Carolina 305.63 25 Wyoming 292.66 26 Virginia 292.13 27 Georgia 291.09 28 Pennsylvania 290.81 29 Louisiana 285.14 30 Utah 276.99 31 Minnesota 270.28 32 Kansas 266.60 33 Idaho 265.33 34 South Carolina 251.88 35 Tennessee 247.28 36 New Hampshire 244.46 37 Oklahoma 236.84 38 Iowa 235.40 39 Missouri 234.37 40 Vermont 231.49 41 Alabama 224.17 42 Montana 216.29 43 Nebraska 209.99 44 South Dakota 204.28 45 Kentucky 199.59 46 Indiana 196.99 47 Arkansas 191.65 48 Maine 186.62 49 Mississippi 180.58 50 North Dakota 162.21 51 West Virginia 156.26 Note: These data are based on a summation of responses from individual State and local government agencies. Some data for individual governments may be for a prior reporting period. In 1995 full-time equivalent employment in State and local justice functions was 65.7 persons per 10,000 population nationally. California had the highest number of justice employees (almost 57,000 full-time equivalent employees). Excluding the District of Columbia, New York had the most justice employees per 10,000 residents (89.3) (table 5). Table 5. Ratio of justice full-time equivalent (FTE) employment to resident population and average monthly earnings, by State, October 1995 State and local justice systems Number Average of FTE employee employees earnings per 10,000 October State residents 1995 All States 65.7 $2,951 Alabama 51.5 2,404 Alaska 71.2 4,268 Arizona 73.4 2,727 Arkansas 52.2 1,951 California 63.3 3,909 Colorado 60.1 3,035 Connecticut 63.2 3,361 Delaware 73.9 2,938 District of Columbia 189.7 3,568 Florida 81.8 2,827 Georgia 75.7 2,219 Hawaii 68.4 3,068 Idaho 65.0 2,440 Illinois 68.2 3,258 Indiana 52.4 2,183 Iowa 45.3 2,732 Kansas 63.4 2,374 Kentucky 51.9 2,155 Louisiana 69.7 2,012 Maine 42.9 2,501 Maryland 86.6 2,891 Massachusetts 59.5 3,166 Michigan 57.6 3,193 Minnesota 48.2 3,233 Mississippi 54.9 1,959 Missouri 57.2 2,176 Montana 47.7 2,262 Nebraska 51.6 2,474 Nevada 75.7 3,468 New Hampshire 48.4 2,902 New Jersey 86.5 3,516 New Mexico 73.4 2,411 New York 89.3 3,797 North Carolina 58.1 2,275 North Dakota 43.5 2,315 Ohio 61.0 2,743 Oklahoma 66.2 1,964 Oregon 54.2 3,093 Pennsylvania 58.3 2,794 Rhode Island 58.7 3,727 South Carolina 65.5 2,067 South Dakota 46.0 2,228 Tennessee 57.0 2,291 Texas 75.5 2,319 Utah 50.6 2,564 Vermont 46.3 2,693 Virginia 62.3 2,688 Washington 55.1 3,112 West Virginia 33.8 2,030 Wisconsin 55.2 2,849 Wyoming 66.6 2,315 Note: These data are based on a summation of responses from individual State and local government agencies. Some data for individual governments may be for a prior reporting period. Average earnings are computed by dividing the October payrolls by the number of full-time equivalent employees. The monthly average earnings of State and local full-time equivalent justice employees was $2,951 for October, 1995. Alaska had the highest average earnings at $4,268. The lowest average State and local justice system earnings were in Arkansas ($1,951) and Oklahoma ($1,964). There were regional variations in State justice expenditure. In 1995 per capita spending for justice was -- * $428 in the South * $425 in the Northeast * $334 in the West * $309 in the Midwest In general crime rates and expenditure are related. States with high crime rates tend to have higher than average expenditures and employment devoted to criminal and civil justice. These States include Alaska, California, and Maryland. Other States, such as North Dakota, West Virginia, and New Hampshire have both low crime rates and low justice expenditure (figure 2). Justice employment In October 1995 the Nation's civil and criminal justice system employed almost 2 million persons, with a total October payroll of $5.8 billion (table 6). Local governments accounted for more civil and criminal justice employment than the Federal and State governments combined. Of all the Nation's justice employees, 60% were engaged in local justice activities. Combined, the State and local governments employed 91.6% of all justice system workers. The Federal Government employed 8.4% of all justice system employees. The distribution of corrections employees reflects State government dominance in that sector -- 63% of corrections employees worked for State governments, followed by 32.7% at the local level and 4.3% at the Federal level. Because law enforcement is essentially the responsibility of local governments, 80.9% of the Nation's police employees were working at the local level. State governments employed 9.9% of police protection workers; the Federal Government, 9.3%. The October 1995 average earnings for Federal-level justice employees (such as Federal law enforcement officers, investigators, and judges) was $4,310. The monthly average earnings for State justice employees was $2799, and for local justice employees it was $2,803 (figure 3). State and local employees' average earnings were similar for police protection activities ($3,141 and $2,925 respectively) and corrections ($2,569 and $2,612). State judicial earnings (averaging $3,290 per employee ) were higher than those of local judicial earnings (averaging $2,585 per employee). Definition of terms Expenditure includes only external cash payments made from any source of monies, including any payments financed from borrowing, fund balances, intergovernmental revenue, and other current revenue. It excludes any intragovernmental transfers and noncash transactions, such as the provision of meals or housing of employees. It also excludes retirement of debt, investment in securities, extensions of loans, or agency transactions. Total expenditures for all government functions do include interest payments on debt, but the justice expenditure data do not. Expenditure is divided into two major categories *Direct expenditure is all expenditure except that classified as intergovernmental. It includes "direct current expenditure" (salaries, wages, fees, and commissions and purchases of supplies, materials, and contractual services) and "capital outlays" (construction and purchase of equipment, land, and existing structures). Capital outlays are included for the year when the direct expenditure is made, regardless of how the funds are raised (for example, by bond issue) or when they are paid back. *Intergovernmental expenditure is the sum of payments from one government to another, including grants-in-aid, shared revenues, payments in lieu of taxes, and amounts for services performed by one government for another on a reimbursable or cost-sharing basis (for example, payments by one government to another for boarding prisoners). It excludes amounts paid to other governments for purchase of commodities, property, or utility services. Employees are all persons on government payrolls during the pay period including October 12, 1995. They include all paid officials and persons on paid leave, but exclude unpaid officials, persons on unpaid leave, pensioners, and contractors. Full-time employees are all persons employed on a full-time basis, including all full-time temporary or seasonal workers who were employed during this pay period. Full-time equivalent employment (FTE) is a statistical measure that estimates the number of full-time employees that could have been employed if the reported number of hours worked by part-time employees had been worked by full-time employees. This statistic is calculated separately for each function of a government by dividing the "part-time hours paid" by the standard number of hours for full-time employees in the particular government and then adding the resulting quotient to the number of full-time employees. Payroll is the gross 1-month payroll before deductions and includes salaries, wages, fees, and commissions paid to employees as defined above for October 1995. Police protection is the function of enforcing the law, preserving order, and apprehending those who violate the law, whether these activities are performed by a city police department, sheriff's department, State police, or Federal law enforcement agency such as the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Private security police are outside the scope of the survey. Judicial and legal services includes all civil and criminal courts and activities associated with courts such as law libraries, grand juries, petit juries, medical and social service activities, court reporters, judicial councils, bailiffs, and probate functions. It also includes the civil and criminal justice activities of the attorneys general, district attorneys, State's attorneys, and their variously named equivalents and corporation counsels, solicitors, and legal departments with various names. It excludes legal units of noncriminal justice agencies, whose functions may be performed by a legal service department in other jurisdictions (such as a county counsel). Corrections involves the confinement and rehabilitation of adults and juveniles convicted of offenses against the law and the confinement of persons suspected of a crime awaiting trial or adjudication. It includes the costs of operation and employment for jails, prisons, probation, parole, pardon, and correctional administration. Data for institutions with authority to hold prisoners beyond arraignment (usually 48 hours or more) are included in this sector. Data for lockups or "tanks" holding prisoners less than 48 hours are included in "police protection." Methodology The justice data in this report include the expenditures and employment of the Federal Government, the State governments, and a sample of county, municipal, and township governments. Unless otherwise noted, data for total governmental functions and non-justice governmental functions also include the expenditures of special districts and school districts, which generally do not have justice functions. This report is based on a compilation of data from the Census Bureau's annual surveys of governmental finances and employment. The survey sample was selected from the 1987 Census of Local Governments and consists of large units of government (including all 50 States) sampled with certainty and smaller units selected with a probability proportional to the unit's expenditure or indebtedness. The total number of local governments in the sample is 13,035. Certain limitations reflect the fact that the surveys from which this Bulletin was extracted are not designed to obtain data on specific justice functions. The sampling variability, or "standard error" for each of the justice activities is likely to be larger than for the major categories that the surveys were designed to estimate. Similarly, the standard error is likely to be greater for local governments than for State-local aggregates which are sampled in part, with certainty. Specific standard errors can be found on the Census Bureau's website (www.census.gov). Differences in functional responsibilities from State to State and government to government can affect the comparability of expenditure and employment data. Readers should be generally cautious in comparing governmental expenditures because of this variation in the division of responsibilities. The data in this report are preliminary and subject to change. They differ in some cases from those previously published in the Census Bureau's finance and employment survey reports because of definitional differences and the more intensive review procedures and data refinements used for this compilation. The data here differ from other BJS series which collect agency-based employment and expenditure data because of collection methods, units of analysis, and data collection purposes. These include -- Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics, Prosecutors in State Courts and various court statistics series, The Census of Local Jails, The Census of State and Federal Correctional Facilities, and the report State Prison Expenditures, 1996. Financial data for the Federal Government were extracted from The Budget of the United States Government, FY 1997, Appendix. The historical finance data may differ slightly from the justice expenditure data found in the Expenditure and Employment Extracts because of definitional differences. Federal Government civilian employment data were obtained from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Statistics for State and local governments were obtained by a mail survey including all State departments, agencies, and institutions, and a local central reporting office supplemented by special mailings. The deflation procedures to produce constant dollars are described in Report to the Nation on Crime and Justice: Technical Appendix, Second Edition, pp. 82-86. The current analysis differs from the methodology described there in two ways. First, the current analysis adjusted Federal expenditures in addition to State and local expenditures. The second deviation was that current methodology used October payroll data for the collection year rather than the fiscal year of the payroll period. The procedures employed were identical, using the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis "government implicit price deflators" separately for total State and local expenditures and Federal nondefense expenditures. Trend comparisons between the data in this report and reports covering data for 1971-79, 1985, 1988, and 1990 from the Justice Expenditure and Employment survey series are complicated by differences in methodology. These differences are described in the BJS reports for these years, and on the BJS website. In making trend comparisons, users should limit their analysis to one of the two sources: * long-term trends for 1971-79, 1985, 1988, and 1990 from the Justice Expenditure and Employment survey series * recent year-to-year trends from the 1980-95 Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts data. A more detailed description of the survey methodology (including sample design and sampling errors) can be found in the Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs. The Bureau of Justice Statistics is the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. Jan M. Chaiken, Ph.D., is director. BJS Bulletins present the first release of findings from permanent data collection programs. Lea S. Gifford and Sue A. Lindgren, under the supervision of Steve K. Smith, wrote this report. Marika F.X. Litras provided statistical review. Tom Hester and Tina Dorsey produced and edited the report. Jayne Robinson prepared the report for publication. The data extraction, editing and tabulation for the 1995 Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts were performed at the U.S. Bureau of the Census by Carl Handy with assistance from Victoria Campbell and Duane Cavanaugh under the supervision of Steve Owens and Stephanie Brown. November 1999, NCJ 178235 This report and others from the Bureau of Justice Statistics are available through the internet -- http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/ The data from the Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts are available from the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data, maintained by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan 1-800-999-0960. The archive may also be accessed through BJS Internet site. Refer to study number 2840. End of report IH 11/17/99