Analýza nákladů na vězeňství a vývoj ukládání alternativních trestů v ČR mezi lety 2014 až 2024

This bachelor thesis analyses the development of prison system expenditures in the Czech Republic between 2014 and 2024, focusing on the budget of the Prison Service of the Czech Republic. It examines revenues, expenditures, average daily costs per inmate, the number of incarcerated persons, bed capacity, staffing levels and the development of selected alternative sanctions. Three research hypotheses are tested. The first states that the increase in average daily costs per inmate is closely related to rising wage expenditures of Prison Service employees. The second tests whether average daily costs decrease with a higher number of inmates due to the significant share of fixed costs. The third examines whether higher investment expenditures translate into higher average daily costs. The theoretical part, based on a literature review, summarises key concepts, presents the main types of alternative sanctions and Becker’s economic perspective on crime. The empirical part uses data from the annual reports of the Prison Service, the Ministry of Justice, the Probation and Mediation Service and the Czech Statistical Office, and applies descriptive, comparative and correlation analysis. The results verify all three hypotheses and show that wage expenditures are the main factor behind the growth of unit costs per inmate, while the effects of capacity utilisation and investment expenditures are significantly weaker. A final comparison of the costs of imprisonment and home detention with electronic monitoring shows that home detention is a substantially cheaper option whose wider use could reduce the burden on public budgets.