The Department of Corrections calculates a daily cost of care for each year. This represents the average cost of holding one person in custody for one day. It is calculated by taking the department's actual spending for the year, subtracting any reimbursements, and dividing by the total number of person-days.

The cost of care is used to bill the U.S. Marshals Service for holding federal prisoners. Alaska has no federal prisons, so the U.S. Marshals Service uses Alaska's facilities to hold federal prisoners. The U.S. Marshals Service pays the same per-day rate as the cost of care calculated for DOC.

This site covers fiscal years 2016 through 2025. Fiscal years run from July 1 to June 30 and are named for the year they end. For example, FY2025 is July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. FY2022 is not included because the cost of care was not recalculated that year. The workbook includes a cost certification sheet signed by DOC management.

The site has four pages: Overview, Trends, Explore, and Data.

The cost of care represents the average amount spent by DOC for each person under supervision each day. For FY2025, the cost was $243.24 per person per day for people in institutions, $183.18 for people in community residential centers, $43.59 for people on pretrial supervision, $30.37 for people on electronic monitoring, and $15.48 for people on probation/parole.

Institutions have the highest rate because they provide staff on duty around the clock, housing, food, health care, and buildings.

The programs hold or supervise different groups of people, at different stages, and for different reasons, so the rates describe each program; they are not a price list to compare.

Two other rates in the workbooks are not on this chart, community jails and out-of-state placements; both are in the downloadable files on the Data page.

The FY2025 institution rate of $243.24 per person per day is the sum of five component costs. Each component is the total cost for the year divided by person-days.

The largest component is the cost to run the institutions, including staff, food, utilities, and buildings, at $160.21. The second largest is the cost of health care provided through Health and Rehabilitation Services at $59.62. The remaining components are statewide direct costs at $14.28, a share of department-wide administration and support at $8.33, and offender habilitation programs at $0.80.

The chart shows the cost of care for each facility, split by facility cost and shared costs that are the same across every facility. The shared costs are health care, statewide direct, admin and support, and inmate programs, which total $83.03 at every facility. The facility rate ranges from $187.67 at Palmer to $459.18 at Ketchikan.

The difference between facilities comes almost entirely from the facility's own cost of care. The own cost at Palmer was $104.65, while at Ketchikan it was $376.15. Larger facilities tend to have lower own costs because they can spread fixed costs over more person-days. For example, Goose Creek, the largest facility, had 415,340 person-days and an own cost of $131.94, while Ketchikan had only 16,030 person-days. Health care is charged to every facility at the same statewide average, so the chart does not show any differences in health care costs between facilities.

Facility rates are calculated before statewide reimbursements are subtracted. As a result, on average, the facility rates come out somewhat above the statewide cost of care of $243.24.

From FY2016 to FY2025, total institution cost grew 47%, the average daily population fell 10%, and cost per day rose 63%.

Cost per day generally moves faster than total cost. That is because cost per day = total cost divided by person-days, which rises when spending goes up and when fewer people share the fixed costs of buildings, 24-hour posts, and minimum staffing. Of the 63% rise in cost per day, roughly four-fifths comes from total spending going up and about one-fifth from fewer people. After adjusting for Anchorage general inflation (which rose 37.5% over the same years), total institution cost grew about 6.6% from FY2016 to FY2025. The next section on this page looks at what pushed spending up.

No cost per day rate was calculated for FY2022; the dotted segments in the chart connect FY2021 to FY2023.

From FY2016 to FY2025, DOC operations spending rose +37%, in step with Anchorage CPI (+37%), Alaska average hourly wage (+34%), and Alaska heating fuel price (+38%). These are the costs of staffing, food, utilities, and buildings.

Spending on Health & Rehabilitation Services, which covers medical care, behavioral health, substance use treatment, and sex offender management, rose +80% — from $52.5M in FY2016 to $94.5M in FY2025. Anchorage medical care prices rose +32%. This is a measure of the price of the same care, not the number or acuity of patients, or who pays.

The governor's FY2025 and FY2027 budget documents (DOC Physical Health Care), written with DOC, list the following factors in the rising costs of inmate care:

• acuity increases
• chronic illness and complex substance use increases
• catastrophic cases increases
• aging population
• non-competitive healthcare staff wages

Additionally, after a policy review, it was determined that DOC can't bill Medicaid for inmates admitted to outside hospitals.

DOC told the Legislative Finance Committee in the FY2026 budget book that medical vacancies led to increased overtime and contract care.

The aging population is another driving factor. The DOC 2025 Offender Profile says the average age is rising, without giving a number. DOC's daily counts show the share of the population age 50 and up was 18.7% in April 2016 and 23.4% in April 2026.

Use the two sliders to see how changes to the incarcerated population and inflation affect the cost of care. The top row of illustrations shows the fixed costs (left), then the current incarcerated population (middle), and the projected population in 10 years after your change (right). The bars next to the illustrations show the current total cost of care and total cost after your change. Below, the bars show each year's total cost and cost per day from the current fiscal year to year 10.

The first slider changes the incarcerated population by a percentage each year, from -4% to +1.5%. The top end keeps the projected year-10 population under about 5,100 general beds. The slider starts at 0%. The second slider changes the annual inflation rate, starting with the latest U.S. Consumer Price Index for 12 months to the current month. The slider also provides buttons for the Federal Reserve's target of 2%, the 10-year average for Anchorage, and the latest CPI; these buttons update the slider and the chart automatically. Both sliders compound, so their changes repeat each year.

Assumptions

The model starts with the actual costs from FY2025. It does not include other known changes to costs in future years, such as pay raises.

There is one major assumption in this model. About three-fourths of the cost of care at institutions is fixed. Buildings, 24-hour posts, and minimum staffing remain even if the population drops. The rest follows headcount.

This assumption comes from a 2019 report by the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission, which found that each additional prisoner-day cost about $45, which was far below that year's average cost per day. So, if the incarcerated population is smaller, the total cost of care goes down a little, and the cost per day goes up. If inflation is higher, both go up.

Capacity

The incarcerated population is divided into custody levels: minimum, medium, and close. A person who needs close custody cannot be placed in a minimum custody bed. So, an empty bed only helps people of the matching custody level.

In addition, facilities hit their peak capacity on different days. A jail might be full on a day that a prison has room. As a result, the number of beds that could be taken out is less than the reduction in population alone would suggest.

The FY2026 budget cut $7.5 million and directed the closure of one housing unit at Spring Creek. DOC closed House 2 in July 2025. DOC reported to the Finance co-chairs in December 2025 that the closure did not save personnel costs, but moved them to other facilities. The Legislative Finance FY2027 budget book notes DOC's statement that the closure did not produce savings.