States pay about $50 billion a year to support prisons. They pay about $75 billion for higher education. If the cost of prisons were cut in half, leaving the cost of incarceration still above the cost in almost all other countries, states could spend far more on state colleges and universities. Tuition costs are about $40 billion a year; they could be reduced by two-thirds. This change would sharply reduce the growth of student debt chronicled in chapter 4.
