The cost of keeping an inmate in federal prison averages $436 a day. Inmates at women’s prisons were the most expensive, at an average $779 per day.The Correctional Service figures indicate prison spending is at a record high, per Blacklock's Reporter. “The cost of maintaining an offender in the community is 74% less than what it costs to maintain an offender in custody, $41,519 per year versus $159,115 per year,” said the report.The average has increased 32% since 2019.“The average daily inmate cost includes those costs associated with the operation of institutions such as salaries and employee benefit plan contributions but excludes capital expenditures,” said Statistical Overview. Cost breakdowns were an average $152,704 per year for men and $284,175 per year for women..Healing lodges account for majority of of prison escapees: Correctional Service of Canada.The Correctional Service in an earlier 2023 report to the Senate National Finance Committee said its figures were calculated “by dividing the overall operating expenses by the average number of offenders.”Averaging likely under-reported actual expenses, it said.Tony Matson, assistant prison commissioner, in 2023 testimony told the Senate committee that fixed costs could not be cut even if cells sat empty.“We have a large component of our funding that is fixed in nature,” testified Matson.“But there is a significant amount that changes based on the number of offenders in population. It also changes with inflationary pressures.”.Quebec announces prison placement will be based off anatomical sex.The federal prison system has 16,382 cells by official estimate. Inmates in custody averaged 12,374. Prison guards number 11,000. The Correctional Service overall spends more than $3.2 billion annually.The Correctional Investigator in a 2019 Annual Report to Parliament acknowledged Canada’s system was expensive.“With a staff-to-inmate ratio of one to one the Correctional Service of Canada is among the highest resourced correctional systems in the world,” said the report.“Today nearly four in ten prisons have more full time employees than inmates.”“In some institutions the number of correctional officers alone exceeds the number of inmates.”.Trump bans transgender women from female prisons.A 2024 plan to use empty prison cells as temporary shelter for illegal immigrants awaiting deportation added some $16 million a year in costs, according to Canada Border Services Agency figures.Additional expenses included “compassionate detention conditions” like daily access to doctors, nurses and psychologists.Cabinet in its 2024 budget proposed rewriting regulations to permit use of vacant cells in federal penitentiaries to hold illegal immigrants and refugee claimants deemed a risk to public safety.“The government proposed amendments to the Corrections And Conditional Release Act and the Immigration And Refugee Protection Act to enable the use of federal correctional facilities for the purpose of high risk immigration detention,” it wrote.
