Pay-to-stay (imprisonment)

In the United States, pay-to-stay is the practice of charging prisoners for their accommodation in jails. The practice is controversial, because it can result in large debts being accumulated by prisoners who are then unable to repay the debt following their release, preventing them from successfully reestablishing themselves in society.^[1]^[2] In 2015, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio published a comprehensive study of the pay-to-stay policy throughout the state of Ohio, the first detailed study of its kind.^[1]^[3]

In 2017, The Marshall Project published a study of jails in Southern California, where wealthier prisoners could pay to be housed in a more comfortable, safer prison in a different jurisdiction, sometimes with more furlough privileges.^[4] The facilities are located in Seal Beach, Anaheim, Arcadia, Burbank, Glendale, Huntington Beach, Pasadena, Santa Ana and Torrance.^[5] These prisons offer many benefits, including private cells, less violence and even the opportunity for convicts to serve their sentence only on weekends or after work.^[6]^[7]