“The U.S. locks up children at more than six times the rate of all other developed nations. The over 60,000 average daily juvenile lockups, a figure estimated by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF), are also disproportionately young people of color. With an average cost of $80,000 per year to lock up a child, the U.S. spends more than $5 billion annually on youth detention.” - Pete Brook, Wired.com (click through for source article)

For comparison, the annual spending for k-12 education (per child) is less than $8000 (source) - it costs 10x less to educate than incarcerate.

(Source: mywritingmysociety)