'Pay to stay': Inmates across U.S. charged for their own incarceration

[mfcorey1]

Nearly every state lets prisons and jails charge inmates for their own incarceration — room, board, clothing, and doctor's visits — in a phenomenon called "pay to stay."

We don't know exactly how many prisons and jails take advantage of "pay to stay." The latest survey, in 2005, found that 90 percent of jails surveyed charged inmates fees of one kind of another. In an era of tight budgets, the practice is probably even more widespread today.

The Brennan Center for Justice, a criminal justice reform think tank, put together an analysis of what pay-to-stay laws are on the books in every state. If you're interested in what your state's laws are, you can check out this nifty interactive map on their website. But spoiler alert: your state almost certainly has pay-to-stay.

Pay-to-stay piles on a second punishment to the sentence that's been handed down by a judge. That creates lasting, detrimental effects on inmates and their families — and society as a whole. It doubles the strain on inmates' families: in addition to losing a household income, they have to pay to support their incarcerated family member. And it makes it even harder for inmates to get back on their own two feet financially after they're released from prison.

It's estimated that about 10 million Americans owe about $50 billion in debt because of fees and fines they've gotten through the criminal justice system — and thanks to pay-to-stay, some of that debt comes from prisoners having to pay for their own incarceration.

Almost every state practices pay-to-stay
43 states allow inmates to get charged for "room and board" — the cost of their own imprisonment. 35 states charge inmates for at least some medical expenses. Taken together, at least 49 states have a law on the books that authorizes at least one of the two. (Hawaii, as well as DC, don't have statutes that explicitly address pay-to-stay.)

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/pay-to-stay-inmates-across-us-charged-for-their-own-incarceration/ar-BBkgito

[yeoman6987]

1. Soon it will be families that have to provide meals

That happens in places abroad. Talk about hardship. We need to get away from this before other worse things happen.

[hifiguy]

2. If people are to be punished by the state

it is the goddam state's responsibility to cover the cost.

[tblue37]

3. Debtors' prisons. They are supposed to be illegal, but power does whatever power wants to do.

ON EDIT:

<SNIP>

In the United States, debtors’ prisons were banned under federal law in 1833. A century and a half later, in 1983, the Supreme Court affirmed that incarcerating indigent debtors was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection clause. Yet, citizens like Sanders and Ford are, to this day, routinely jailed after failing to repay debt. Though de jure debtors’ prisons are a thing of the past, de facto debtors’ imprisonment is not.

<SNIP>

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/02/24/debtors-prisons-then-and-now-faq

[tblue37]

4. BTW, how long before we do as China does, and charge the prisoner's family for the cost of

execution? At least in China they just charge for the bullet; in this country, I could see some corporation turning execution into a profit center by charging inmates' families for everything involved.

[BlueJazz]

5. The comments at the end of the article will piss you off more than the story.

"Make them work 14 hours a day"
"Let them die"

Fuck..what a pack of nasty SOB's

[oldinmiss]

6. Now some things make sense

Contract incarceration is taking over in my state. Now it makes (financial) sense. They get fees from the taxpayer on a head count basis, they do not have to furnish medical aid (in this state) (that is sent back to the jurisdiction holding the prisoner), and now I see they can charge the family.

No wonder there is no push for rehabilitating people or from keeping down repeat offenders.

[arcane1]

7. And we lead the world in incarceration for that very reason.

Welcome to DU!

[Nevernose]

8. Ever see someone with an ankle monitor?

Usually they have to pay for the "electronic monitoring," and that's in addition to bail. The State thinks they're being generous.

You have to pay to stay in jail; you have to pay to get out. God help you if you actually plead not guilty, because that's an extra couple of years right there.

[Skittles]

9. kicking people when they are down

it's a repuke ideal