A Beastly Bargain: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Prison-Based Dog-Training Programs in Florida

DOI10.1177/00328855211010403
AuthorDavid P. Farrington,William D. Bales,Barbara J. Cooke,Leslie B. Hill
Published date01 June 2021
Date01 June 2021
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/00328855211010403
The Prison Journal
2021, Vol. 101(3) 239 –261
© 2021 SAGE Publications
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00328855211010403
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Article
A Beastly Bargain:
A Cost-Benefit Analysis
of Prison-Based
Dog-Training Programs
in Florida
Barbara J. Cooke1, Leslie B. Hill2,
David P. Farrington3, and William D. Bales4
Abstract
Dog-training programs have become a popular form of alternative prison
programming. One of the reported benefits of these programs is their low
cost to the criminal justice system. Very little research has been conducted
on their effects on offenders, and, to date, no cost-benefit analyses have been
reported. This article presents a cost-benefit analysis using program cost
and updated recidivism results from an evaluation of dog-training programs.
The analyses projected that, for every criminal justice system dollar spent on
the dog-training programs, between $2,877 and $5,353 were saved. These
findings suggest that dog-training programs could be cost-beneficial.
Keywords
cost-benefit analyses, dog-training programs, rehabilitation
1Keiser University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
2The Citadel, Charleston, SC, USA
3Cambridge University, UK
4Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA
Corresponding Author:
Barbara J. Cooke, Graduate School, Keiser University, 1900 W. Commercial Boulevard, Suite
100, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309, USA.
Email: bcooke@keiseruniversity.edu
1010403TPJXXX10.1177/00328855211010403The Prison JournalCooke et al.
research-article2021
240 The Prison Journal 101(3)
Introduction
Responding to and attempting to curb criminal behavior is becoming an
increasingly expensive undertaking. For instance, between the years 1982
and 2003, expenditures on our nation’s criminal justice system increased by
$36 billion, which equates to a 418% increase (Hughes, 2006). Likewise,
criminal justice has become an enormous burden upon state budgets, and
Hughes (2006) indicated that, during the same period (1982–2003), state
spending in all areas of criminal justice increased: policing by 293.4%, judi-
cial and legal by 474.3% and corrections by 550.9%. When examining the
US Census Bureau’s archived local and state finances, it appears that since
2003, the increases have slowed but are still quite substantial. Between the
years of 2004 and 2015, our nation’s policing budgets have increased by
50.03% and corrections budgets have grown by 36.22% (US Census Bureau:
State and Local Government Finances, 2018)1. For example, in the 2015 to
2016 fiscal year, Florida budgeted over $4.2 billion for criminal justice and
corrections, which increased to $4.4 billion the following fiscal year (2016–
2017), and in 2017 to 2018, they increased their budget by about $32 million
(Florida Policy Institute, 2019).
Despite these large expenditures directed to “correcting” criminal behavior,
those released from prison still contribute significantly to the crime rate of
their release state (Rosenfeld et al., 2005). Osterman and Caplan (2016)
estimate that, over a three- year-period, inmates released from New Jersey
prisons cost more than half a billion dollars in post-release criminal activity.
Disaggregated, the average offender released from a NJ prison costs the state
$34,324.02 for all post-release arrest events in 3 years, and $17,533.51 for the
first post-release arrest event. Similarly, Raphael and Stoll (2004) found that
ex-offenders released from prison significantly increase nearly all felony
offenses in the area in which they are released. During the 1990s, the net
increase in the population of those released from prison accounted for roughly
2% of property crime and 2.5% of violent crime. However, when examining
murder and robbery, Raphael and Stoll (2004) found that those released from
prison in 1993 accounted for 14% of murder and 7% of robbery in 1994.
They concluded that, due to the high cost of criminal victimization, even
modest effects of prison rehabilitation or post-release rehabilitation programs
on crime would likely be beneficial for state criminal justice budgets.
As a result of decades of mounting correctional costs and subsequent expen-
ditures from criminal recidivism, legislators and correctional administrators
have focused on ways to cut correctional budgets. The Vera Institute of Justice’s
Center on Sentencing and Corrections issued a report in 2010 outlining cost-
cutting information from 44 states and found that, among several strategies,

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