In the decade between 2002 and 2012, spending on the criminal justice system increased from approximately $12,200,000,000.00 (i.e., 12.2 billion dollars), to approximately $20,300,000,000.00 (i.e., 20.3 billion dollars). This rise occurred despite the fact that during the same period, incidents of reported crime decreased by approximately 30%.
The rise in spending on the criminal justice, thus represents an increase of approximately 66% (i.e., an average increase of approximately 5.2% per year) at the same time the number of reported incidents of crime were falling at an average rate of approximately 3.5%. Assuming the pattern has held true over the last 5 years, one can now estimate that Canadian taxpayers are currently spending approximately, $28,000,000,000.00 (i.e., 28 billion dollars) per year (i.e., approximately 77 million dollars per day), for a problem that affects, at most, 5% of the population each year (see: crime rate per capita below).
Read more at Criminal Law Reform