Although the number of inmates at prisons in New York State has dropped significantly in the past decade due to changes in state laws and how a New York City criminal attorney would need to argue a defendant's case, the spending for the nation on prisons has risen sharply in the past few decades with an eleven billion dollar price tag in 1987 rising to over fifty billion dollars this year. The only cost in the country that has risen faster has been Medicaid as far as the cost and amount paid by each state around the country is concerned.