by Carla Murphy www.Colorlines.com

A new report out today reveals that Rikers Island, the nation’s second largest jail and subject of a damning federal investigation, spends $96,000 per inmate each year. That’s more than a 40 percent increase since 2006 and, The New York Times reports, twice the amount spent per inmate by other big cities like Los Angeles, which houses a larger inmate population. Over the same period that costs have risen, the city comptroller’s office found that the inmate population declined 18 percent at Rikers and violence increased to extraordinary levels.

Roughly 85 percent of Rikers’ annual-per-inmate costs goes to pay personnel.