Eighteen years ago, each Mississippian’s annual share of the cost of state prisons was $32. This year the cost is $116.

In context, that’s $464 for every family of four — 10 tanks of gas in the SUV or 10 family dinners at Applebee’s, tip included.

Prisons are necessary, but not cheap.

Amid the back-and-forth over where to cut state spending this year and perhaps for years to come, Gov. Haley Barbour raised the spectre of a “mass release of prisoners.”

Charlie Mitchell is executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. Write to him at Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182, or e-mail.

In his feud with House leaders about their reluctance to give him discretion, Barbour said they were poised to force him to unlock the cell doors for 4,000 or more of the 25,000 people Mississippi has behind bars.

The House wasn’t persuaded by that argument or any others. Authority to make selective cuts was denied and Barbour, in turn, announced nondiscretionary cuts of 8.2 percent in all categories of state spending for the current year. For the Department of Corrections, that will mean about $28 million off a $347 million spending plan. The governor says he believes federal funds can be found to avert early releases, so that topic is at rest — for the moment.

Even so, the whole prison picture is worth a deeper look. As with most topics — education and Medicaid come to mind — their budgets are dealt with once a year, but underlying trends driving the need for funds develop over decades.

The MDOC, under the direction of Commissioner Chris Epps, has already been running leaner for the past couple of years. Even as inmate, parolee and probationer tallies have trickled up to almost 55,000 people, MDOC has been spending slightly less. The Legislature’s PEER Committee staff pegged the per-day cost per-inmate at $39.56 in 2007, which would be slightly less now. Lots of numbers about what it costs to clothe, house, feed and provide medical care to a person in prison are tossed around. The basic number for Mississippi is about $15,000.

Epps, who started his corrections career in 1982, grew up in the Mississippi system. He was initially appointed by former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and was reappointed by Barbour. Folks familiar with prisons might know that managerial positions have at times been passed out as political plums in Mississippi. Being a holdover from a Democratic administration to a Republican administration shows Epps didn’t get his job that way. He’s widely recognized by his peers for professionalism, attention to detail, accountability and competence.

Now imagine a person deciding on a career as a blackjack dealer who awakens the next morning to discover a casino had been built on every corner in America. In terms of demand for his services, that’s what Epps has experienced.

From 1920 until 1980, the population of U.S. prisons trickled up from about 100,000 to about 500,000. Then, boom times began. It took 60 years for the inmate count to increase five-fold, but has taken only 30 years for the tally to increase another five-fold to today’s 2.5 million. There are vastly more people in detention facilities in America, proportionately, than any other nation in the world.

Find what caused the explosion in crime and the corresponding surge in prison populations and fix it, a $60 billion annual expense for American taxpayers will be reduced.

This same line of reasoning is used by those who advocate teaching healthier diets and exercise as a way of controlling increases in medical expenses. Many accept that as rational, but not likely.

Efforts to keep people from doing stuff that lands them in prison might seem to be wishful thinking, too, but the alternative is for every citizen to pay more and more and more.

While the MDOC budget is now being trimmed, there were year-to-year increases of nearly $40 million and Mississippi geared up to lock up more and more offenders during the past 30 years. It could happen again. Private prisons are a whole new industry that didn’t exist in this state until 1998 and are now paid $66 million a year just for per-diem services.

In Mississippi, people have for many years used the terms “prison” and “Parchman” as one and the same. The truth, however, is that felons have less than a one in five chance of going to the infamous penitentiary in the Mississippi Delta. It houses few than 4,000 inmates, while almost 5,300 are held in private prisons and the remaining 15,500 are in county jails or one of the 11 small and two large regional centers.

Prisons are necessary, but not cheap. Anything done to make them less necessary will save money. Effective crime prevention isn’t fast or easy. It’s not a one-year deal. It is, however, where state taxpayers could get relief.