Ryan's death row moves could save $1 million

Taking 167 inmates off death row may save the state money, a corrections department spokesman said Sunday.

It costs the state about $27,800 a year to house each death row inmate, said Sergio Molina, chief of communications for the Illinois Department of Corrections. By comparison, it costs just $21,600 a year to house each maximum security inmate.

 Do the math, and you see that clearing out death row amounts to an annual savings of $6,200 per inmate - roughly $1 million a year.

 Molina said it's hard to figure just how much money, if any, would actually be saved because the former death row inmates still haven't been transferred to the maximum security prisons. "Time will tell," Molina said. "But the numbers speak for themselves."

 Further, the cost to imprison someone on death row is slightly higher because it has individual cells, higher security, separate facilities and meals served to prisoners in their cells. In maximum security prisons, the inmates share cells and facilities, and they eat their meals in the cafeteria, Molina said.

 The cost to house prisoners pales in comparison to the legal costs involved in capital cases, according to groups that oppose the death penalty. Taxpayers spend millions of dollars a year supporting the state's capital punishment system, said Jane Bohman, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Taxpayer money is used to pay for things like appeals, multiple hearings and trials, hiring experts and consultants and funding for defense attorneys.

 "Is this the best way to spend our resources, or are there other ways to protect ourselves as a society," Bohman said. "Like using the money for victim services or crime prevention?"

 Even if a prisoner is incarcerated at age 20 and lives to age 70, that will cost taxpayers $1 million - far less than the $2 million to $4 million it would cost them if it were a capital case, according to the University of Chicago Law School's MacArthur Justice Center.

 The average age of a prisoner in Illinois is 33, and few prisoners live past their 80th birthday, Molina said.