A Virginia county is considering whether to pay $50,000 per year to lease a prisoner transfer facility in a prime location near Washington, D.C. They estimate it will cost $50 per prisoner to process the paperwork at this new location. The county is paid a $75 commission for each new prisoner they process. If the holding area at this new location has design and effective capacities of 10,000 and 7,500 prisoners processed annually, respectively, and 5,000 prisoners will be processed per year, what will be the utilization of the holding area?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Utilization is calculated as the actual output divided by the effective capacity. Here, the actual output is 5,000 prisoners processed per year, and the effective capacity is 7,500 prisoners. Therefore, the utilization is $ \frac{5,000}{7,500} = 0.6667 $ or 66.67%, which rounds to approximately 67%, but since this option is not available, the closest provided option is 50%.

A Virginia County Is Considering Whether to Pay $50,000 Per