"Pay to Stay" Jail Cells and How Wealth Makes a "Good" Person

I swear to god the ways in which money corrupts everything within our society angers me to no end. For those who don't know what a "Pay to Stay" jail cell is, they are "upgraded" cells for those who need to serve jail time but are willing to pay for their dignity.

For roughly $75 to $127 a day, these convicts — who are known in the self-pay parlance as “clients” — get a small cell behind a regular door, distance of some amplitude from violent offenders and, in some cases, the right to bring an iPod or computer on which to compose a novel, or perhaps a song. Many of the overnighters are granted work furlough, enabling them to do most of their time on the job, returning to the jail simply to go to bed

The idea of equal justice is a myth people. There is no justice unless you pay for it. It's all about money. Money is God. Face it, without some dollars under your belt you may as well be nothing more than a diseased animal just waiting for your own death. You'll love this next part.

“Our sales pitch at the time was, ‘Bad things happen to good people,’ ” said Janet Givens, a spokeswoman for the Pasadena Police Department. Jail representatives used Rotary Clubs and other such venues as their potential marketplace for “fee-paying inmate workers” who are charged $127 a day (payment upfront required).

“People might have brothers, sisters, cousins, etc., who might have had a lapse in judgment and do not want to go to county jail,” Ms. Givens said.

So you can see, if you have some money to throw around you're now "A Good person" who made a mistake. No extra money however and you're just another POS subhuman trash eater who deserves to be thrown to the wolves in overcrowded cells, infectious disease ridden cells, housed with violent gangs, etc.

You can have two people with two exact convictions but one with some extra cash to burn and guess who is considered "Good" and who's treated like a criminal???

For $82 a Day, Booking a Cell in a 5-Star Jail

Here's a lovely article from a different source.

The family of one Seal Beach man paid over $72,000 for an upgraded cell, away from the general population, while he served 2-years for killing a classmate after crashing his car while driving drunk.

In Anaheim, inmates in the city’s pay-to-stay jail program are able to check out their own DVD players for their cell, and work out in a nice gym for a price.

The city of Fullerton offers one upgraded cell where inmates who can afford the $127 a night gets their own TV, a telephone in the cell, and a personal full-size refrigerator.

Orange County family paid $72K to keep son in upgraded jail cell after he killed girl while drunk driving

I just can't take any more of these F*CKING DOUBLE STANDARDS AND LIES!!! Nothing is fair or balanced and it's all sucking up to money!!!

If we don't have "Equal Justice Under the Law" then we have "No Justice Under the Law". Period. That's it. No Justice, No Reason to Follow the Law. Period.

Money doesn't buy Integrity, in fact usually just the opposite. To hell with this Justice System. To hell with Law Enforcement. To hell with Political BS. Screw it all.

Everything is setup against 99.9% of all of us to benefit the .1% of scumbags sitting back in their Ivory towers of wealth and power and privilege. Every single one of us simply on principle alone should destroy every single one of those plush towers and their occupants or die trying. Either that or just admit you're less than human, that you deserve nothing but what crumbs they throw down to you and your life as well as your families lives are NOTHING compared to theirs. All because the have more FICTIONAL WORTH than you.

If you have enough money you can hire a psychiatrist to say prison would be detrimental to your mental health and that your wealth makes you suffer from affluenza. Mowing down 4 people while drunk is only a crime if you are poor. For the rich, probation.

It's sick. It isn't about crime and punishment. It's about dollars or lack thereof.

This concept really shows that the concept of jail has lost gots value. Lets move on.

a reply to: the owlbear

That's exactly right. That afflueza case had me boiling for days straight. Even now the mention of it makes me want to "C*nt Punch" the halls of Justice back into the stone age.

As long as money determines who is guilty or innocent and the degree to which crimes are punished "Justice is nothing more than a scam to take in money." That's it. There is no way around that. Justice cannot be based upon some arbitrary monetary value system. Our Statue of Justice should replace it's blindfold and scales with Gold chains Credit Cards.

I'm not saying this is right, it's not for any violent offender or homicide offender (including accidental homicide).

However, for non-violent offenders well, it is an innovative solution to the money problem many cities and counties are having in paying for incarceration.

I worked with the criminal justice system for juveniles for a little while. The cost of housing delinquents was enormous, so I was hired to get a program up and running to hopefully keep kids out of "detention" and at home. The judge gave every delinquent who was not violent the same sentence option, parents go to parenting class while the teen goes to life skills class or the child goes to jail, plain and simple. Miss a class without a note from a Dr., kid goes to jail. It really worked and saved the county a lot of money plus reduced recidivism.

So I can sympathize somewhat with the cities and counties wanting to figure out ways to pay for incarceration.

Many cities and counties are struggling to pay for inmates (average cost is around $30,000 per year, per inmate), and so are many states.
To have the inmate pay for an "upgraded" cell helps to defray the cost to the state and county of housing the inmate.

I can understand the appeal to the city, county and state jails. So I am not so quick to judge having been in the middle of a program designed to help reduce costs in what was a very poor county with lots of meth problems. They also had a innovative drug program that the offender had to pay for as an alternative to jail, they did allow payments for the drug program, but it wasn't free because the county could not afford to pay the cost for the program but wanted to offer it.

a reply to: mOjOm
Trying to make sense of the things people do and the shenanigans going on around here in our societies on planet earth is a fools quest, its like were would one start, there are just so many options and examples. If I kept track of all the nutty things and laws out there which I came across. Well it would fill a whole library. The history of the world is the history of nonsense.

But this is nothing new. The well to do, and powerful, and extremely rich, which are basically the same thing, well they have been getting the get out of jail free card for a long time. Now I suppose the whole justice system has gotten in there heads that they would make even more money if they gave a bit of that same privilege to civilians as well. You know, the ones who can afford it that is.

I mean I could link plenty of cases even stupider and nuttier then this. But what would be the point.

a reply to: mOjOm

Well that was a depressing read........

The same thing can be said about house arrest.

If you don't have the money to be put on an ankle monitoring, you'd be spending that time in jail. Often times with "house arrest", the person on the ankle monitor can still go to/from work. This means the offender can sleep in their own bed, eat their own food, watch TV ect...

Whereas the person without the $100-200/week can't do that -- and has to sit in a cold, sterile cell.

The justice system is anything but fair and equitable.

I realized a long time ago that this world is nothing more than a joke. Nothing is as it seems, and I doubt any of it will change in my lifetime. S&F two giant ones at that op.

This is one of the most messed up things I have ever read. I was outraged. Until i put it in context with the Federal prisons.

In the commissary you can rent a TV, and XBox, MP3/CD players, etc. Is that really all that different? A pay to play system in the federal prisons?

So now they are able to monetize a captive audience. Really, in a world where we have ACA, that is unsurprising. But it is sickening.


"You want the cell upgrade? I mean, thats a nice face you have there. Be a shame if anything were to happen to it"

As a landlord, i think it would be outstanding that when a house sits empty for a week, if i could just go and take a prisoner and offer him choice: rent my house, or i can lock you up in that hole in the back yard.

So much for being equal under the law......

But if they had such good lawyers they should have gotten off. Or they actually did something worth going to jail for. Either way, you pay for your own imprisonment--or so I've been told by a friend of mine who is a felon and who has been to both jail and prison. honestly, since they're paying either way, if they can afford the nicer cell then why not? they are offered to everyone. of course not everyone can pay, but for those who can I say all the power to them. In the eyes of the law they are still the same--sure they get different living quarters but the crime and time remain the same. life isn't fair--and I'm not saying that this is a grand idea or anything but heck if I were going to be going to prison I'd sure be happy to have the option of a nicer place to stay where I wouldn't get raped or beat up. So maybe that makes me a bad person for not wanting to get all cozy with the violent convicts, but w/e. Not that I'm going to jail or anything lol but hey, maybe if they realize that recidivism rates go down with better lodging (or up, who knows) they'll implement it into the larger incarceration system. Which is probably where this will end up going in the long run. Sounds like they're testing new stuff out. Might as well.

In no way, however, does wealth make anyone 'good'. Probably the opposite actually. But I'm pretty sure that recidivism rates do fall with higher income/there is more chance for the people to make a better turn around. Because they have something outside of the jail. Whereas many have nothing and therefore keep re-offending. So yeah, some drunk boy accidentally killing someone is a lot different than people who go on drive-by shootings. Neither are good or right but one is a bit less evil than the other. The shooters wanted to kill whereas the boy was an ignorant idiot who drove drunk. Both need to be taught a lesson. But perhaps that lesson is different in each case. I'm not sure if I'm being clear but I just want people to look fairly at this situation. Because there will always be the haves and have nots. There's no reason to hate either. Just be yourself.

a reply to: grandmakdw

I totally understand what you're talking about when it comes to funding for jails and everything. I realize that cities and states need to get some money for prisons and all too.

What I can't agree with is the fact that money, which has basically corrupted every institution we have, cannot be allowed to influence the process of justice and law. When you do that it is the same as simply letting money dictate who is wrong and who is right or who has acted in an unlawful way vs. who is acting lawfully. Money is just not how you measure or determine such things.

In fact this pay to stay stuff is quite minor when you consider all the ways that we've let money ruin our society. But it is a very clear example of how it's influence is reaching every possible level. These "upgraded" cells are available just for those who will pay for them. They should either be available to everyone eligible or nobody. Having the only difference between serving your time with dignity and comfort or with gangs and violence be your willingness to pay means all they've done is establish a legal means of extortion within the prison system.

It also removes the intensive for them to correct the other problems within the General Population as well since the more dangerous the regular jail is the more likely they'll have people willing to pay whatever price they set on the upgraded cells. I can see this getting way out of control. Simply say, "Well, if you want you can pay us such and such a day for these cells or you get thrown in with the murderers, sex offenders, gangs, etc. Who isn't going to pay then??? You could literally extort massive amounts of money from people out of the fear that they'll get raped or killed if they don't. That right there is no different than being strong armed by the mob.

a reply to: mOjOm

Sometimes I think I've reached my threshold for shock, then I read some more and nope...

This is fking pathetic. Sick. We are rotting from the inside out.

a reply to: rukia

It doesn't make you a bad person for wanting to be safe when serving time. Anyone would make that same choice. The problem is that a system that is "Just" shouldn't have such allowances in place to begin with. "Equal under the law" must mean something or the reality is that you don't have Justice at all. What you have is Law, or better yet, punishment based on nothing more than money. You can't have a system of Justice when Justice is simply what you can afford. (That's the problem with it now even though it's hidden from view for the most part. Imagine how abusive the Justice system would be if it was allowed to happen completely legally and with open approval??)

Thank you for this post.

If the U.S.A. stands for anything anymore, it should be for equality under the law, regardless of income.

a reply to: mOjOm

Yeah you're totally right. Money opens doors in the judicial system. It's all about who you know, who your lawyer knows and how that can get you totally out of trouble. It happens all of the time. As long as you have the money. Granted, I'm talking about things like getting caught with pot or something minor like that where you should not have to go to jail anyway (and probably wouldn't be going to jail--you'd probably just have to pay a fine). You actually end up paying more than you would have paid if you took the charge to get the charge reduced majorly. Which is cool and all but it's not really fair for those poor people who have actually gone to jail over the same thing when others with money get a non-traffic citation and get no criminal record.

They should make things like diversion programs available for everyone--even those without great lawyers. If the situation calls for such things of course/if the offenders are young enough etc.

That's the way of it. How many people do you know that think those who don't have a standard job are useless to society?

a reply to: rukia

Oh yeah, absolutely. I totally agree with you about that. The entire prison system and method to which we incarcerate people needs to be revamped from ground up.

Personally I don't think anyone busted for non-violent crimes should even be in jail. All that does is cause more problems and turns people in to criminals when they started off just being citizens who made a mistake. Putting someone in a cage should be reserved for those who pose a threat to others or could cause some kind of serious problem if they are allowed to roam in society or a possible flight risk. Other than that there is no point in having them locked up. It destroys their lives, costs the taxpayers more money, etc.

Things like drug possession shouldn't merit incarceration if it's just possession. There has been no offense to anyone for a charge like that. Once again though, this is where the corruption of money enters the picture. Think of all that money going to prisons and all the other systems which support it. We're talking billions and billions and yet look what we have. We've created a system that rewards more crime. More crime, means more criminals in jail, means more money being sent into that system and those involved. There is no intensive for less crime. But there is intensive to make more laws to punish more actions and get more people locked up. That's BS.