12 Aug The Latest Thing: Pay-to-Stay Jails

As with all exciting cultural developments, a new trend towards paying to “upgrade” your situation in jail started in California. Sadly, it is more because the general prison situation there is so horrid and municipalities are so strapped for cash than because of some exciting bold initiative.

Problem: California prisons are terribly overcrowded, leading to violence, rape and squalor. At the same time, cutbacks are reducing the number of guards. This is even true in facilities where those accused of misdemeanors and awaiting trial are held. Solution: In places like Fremont, where a new small facility that can house 56 male prisoners currently goes unoccupied, offer prisoners to pay $175 a day to stay somewhere quieter and safer. It’s still prison, say officials. But they get certain privileges like more privacy in the bathroom and shower, cable TV and movies. Plus they are away from the general population. And it gets some money back to the county.

Some like the idea giving people a choice when they haven’t even been convicted of anything yet. Others feel it discriminates by benefiting the “rich” who can afford the upgrade. According to a University of Michigan blog, police stations in California promote this with signs saying,  “Serve your time in our clean, safe, secure facility!” The problem of course is this implies that their regular facilities are neither safe, secure nor clean. What do you think?