It’s no secret that the United States leads the world in imprisoning people. Perhaps it’s our Puritan background, the war on drugs, or the endless list of criminal offenses on the books. Regardless, our passion for imprisonment knows no bounds.

The majority of imprisoned people (both convicts and those jailed pending trial) happens on the state level. With that in mind, we set out to calculate exactly how much keeping all these people locked up costs each state and how much each household has to pay to keep all them in ball and chain.

Our first job was simple: Find out how much each state spends on its prison system.

How much do states spend on their prison systems?

State Prison expenditures, 2015 North Dakota** $65,467,993 South Dakota $73,122,593 Montana $95,125,223 Vermont* $116,727,820 Utah $152,778,962 Hawaii* $178,406,163 Idaho $180,115,744 Rhode Island* $186,349,078 West Virginia $188,966,523 Kansas** $237,682,123 Nevada $243,935,441 New Mexico $263,976,999 Delaware* $266,293,532 Iowa** $310,634,762 Alaska* $316,323,123 Kentucky $351,336,792 Arkansas $371,968,841 Minnesota $403,729,705 South Carolina $436,615,085 Oklahoma $451,501,686 Alabama $466,488,094 Indiana $517,678,909 Massachusetts $594,295,857 Louisiana $622,350,856 Washington $632,557,822 Oregon $639,974,399 Colorado $709,581,867 Missouri $716,287,058 Tennessee $723,680,760 Virginia $824,010,613 Wisconsin $867,991,403 Georgia $921,844,210 Connecticut* $1,016,118,399 Arizona $1,069,998,638 Maryland $1,071,682,231 North Carolina $1,118,669,204 Ohio $1,337,453,060 New Jersey $1,354,767,292 Michigan $1,553,213,339 Illinois $1,595,647,075 Florida $1,917,735,951 Pennsylvania $2,151,980,000 Texas $3,283,213,997 New York $3,688,356,319 California $8,596,902,049

The problem with total budgets is that they don't tell the whole story. We wanted to know how much this was costing taxpayers in each state. Big numbers are nice and make great stories, but no single person in California is spending $8 BILLION dollars. So we looked at the most recent population figures available from the U.S. Census, the number of prisons per state, and figured out the cost per inmate, per state.

How many prisons are there in each state?

State Prison population, 2015 North Dakota** 1,696 Vermont* 2,026 Montana 2,833 Rhode Island* 3,182 South Dakota 3,524 Alaska* 6,010 Hawaii* 6,063 Delaware* 6,814 West Virginia 6,882 Utah 6,907 New Mexico 7,167 Idaho 8,120 Iowa** 8,195 Kansas** 9,697 Minnesota 9,760 Massachusetts 10,772 Nevada 13,665 Oregon 14,538 Connecticut* 16,347 Washington 16,716 Arkansas 17,785 Colorado 18,054 Kentucky 21,062 South Carolina 21,773 New Jersey 21,992 Wisconsin 22,461 Maryland 24,028 Oklahoma 27,369 Averages: #REF! Indiana 28,656 Tennessee 30,837 Alabama 31,563 Missouri 32,284 North Carolina 37,066 Louisiana 38,296 Virginia 38,688 Arizona 42,131 Michigan 43,375 Georgia 46,145 Illinois 47,622 Pennsylvania 50,366 Ohio 50,452 New York 53,181 Florida 100,567 California 132,992 Texas 149,159

How much do states spend on each prisoner?

State Average cost per inmate, 2015 Alabama $14,780 Louisiana $16,251 Oklahoma $16,497 Kentucky $16,681 Nevada $17,851 Indiana $18,065 Florida $19,069 Georgia $19,977 South Carolina $20,053 South Dakota $20,748 Arkansas $20,915 Virginia $21,299 Texas $22,012 Utah $22,119 Idaho $22,182 Missouri $22,187 Tennessee $23,468 Kansas** $24,511 Arizona $25,397 Ohio $26,509 West Virginia $27,458 Hawaii* $29,425 North Carolina $30,180 Illinois $33,507 Montana $33,578 Michigan $35,809 New Mexico $36,832 Washington $37,841 Iowa** $37,908 North Dakota** $38,601 Wisconsin $38,644 Delaware* $39,080 Colorado $39,303 Minnesota $41,366 Pennsylvania $42,727 Oregon $44,021 Maryland $44,601 Alaska* $52,633 Massachusetts $55,170 Vermont* $57,615 Rhode Island* $58,564 New Jersey $61,603 Connecticut* $62,159 California $64,642 New York $69,355