How Much Does It Cost to Incarcerate
a Person?

• The average annual cost for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to incarcerate a person was $127,800 per person at the time the 2025-26 budget was enacted. It represents the amount CDCR was budgeted to spend on average per person on prison operations in 2025-26.

• Since 2010-11, the annual average cost has increased by about $78,900 or 161 percent. This includes an increase of $28,000 for security and $27,400 for health care. Significant drivers of this increase include spending to comply with court orders (particularly those related to health care) and employee compensation costs. For more on these cost increases, please see our publication, State Correctional Spending Increased Despite Significant Population Reductions.

• When CDCR has a change in population that does not result in facilities being activated or deactivated, its budget is typically adjusted by about $21,500 per person per year. This is known as the annual marginal cost. About three-quarters of this cost is related to health care.

• The annual marginal cost is lower than the annual average cost because it generally only includes funding budgeted directly based on the size of the prison population, such as funding for food, clothing, and certain types of staffing. It generally excludes funding that changes only when facilities are activated or deactivated. For example, most security spending is excluded from the annual marginal cost as it is largely driven by the number and type of facilities CDCR has activated rather than the number of people held in those facilities.

• The annual marginal cost is used to estimate the fiscal effects of changes in the population that do not result in the activation or deactivation of prison facilities.

Last Updated: September 2025