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Pay-to-Stay Jail Programs Offer Upgraded Cells For a Price

Somerville

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Isn't this special? :roll: If you have the money you don't have to stay with those 'others' even when you have killed a person.

Pay-to-Stay Jail Programs Offer Upgraded Cells For a Price

Jail isn’t meant to be comfortable. But in some SoCal cities, for the right price, they can be decidedly more so than for most of the general prison population, to the outrage of crime victims and their families.
<snip>
On Aug. 22, 2010, Chiho Hayakawa’s daughter, Mai, was killed instantly in a deadly DUI crash. She was the passenger in a Toyota Celica that was unrecognizable after the collision. The drunken driver of the car was Mai’s classmate, a man named Michael Keating.

Hayakawa said Keating never apologized to her family, and then, was given upgraded jail accommodations when his family shelled out tens of thousands of dollars.

Called “pay-to-stay,” the cells can be found in Seal Beach, Anaheim, Arcadia, Burbank, Glendale, Huntington Beach, Pasadena, Santa Ana and Torrance, at nightly rates of $127 to $143. In some cities, the non-violent offender’s cell doors are not locked, and the prisoners are free to come and go to their jobs on a daily basis.

Now that's what you call "equal justice"
 
Those darned republicants must be behind this scandal. ;)
 
Now that's what you call "equal justice"

That's what you call an incompetently managed state doing whatever it can to balance a budget.
 
That's what you call an incompetently managed state doing whatever it can to balance a budget.

Those are not state prisons but instead are city and county jails. In other words not relevant to the state's budget situation. In fact most of the towns listed, particularly in Orange County are controlled by Republicans - just check who they elect to Congress.

Also, why are you ignoring the point of the OP? Which is, for your edification, IF you got the cash, you ain't gonna suffer like those others, who may have been convicted of lesser crimes. Yeah, equality for all.
 
That's what you call an incompetently managed state doing whatever it can to balance a budget.

Nope, that is what I call the "just us" system where special criminals get special treatment. One can hardly expect to balance a city budget by charging a handful of (268) prisoners a whopping $70K (combined) per year.
 
Those are not state prisons but instead are city and county jails. In other words not relevant to the state's budget situation. In fact most of the towns listed, particularly in Orange County are controlled by Republicans - just check who they elect to Congress.

Ok, let me rephrase. That's what you call incompetently managed cities doing whatever they can to balance a budget. And spare me the partisan nonsense. I'm not a partisan.
 
Isn't this special? :roll: If you have the money you don't have to stay with those 'others' even when you have killed a person.



Called “pay-to-stay,” the cells can be found in Seal Beach, Anaheim, Arcadia, Burbank, Glendale, Huntington Beach, Pasadena, Santa Ana and Torrance, at nightly rates of $127 to $143. In some cities, the non-violent offender’s cell doors are not locked, and the prisoners are free to come and go to their jobs on a daily basis.

Now that's what you call "equal justice"

Do you know the difference between jail and prison?
 
meh why not. We already allow the wealthy to buy or delay their way out of jail by purchasing the better lawyers and allow bail to serious flight risks. Now even if by some miracle the rich are convicted, we can make it no loss for them. Got $100 million? Your 'cell' can be the entire riker's island and everyone else gets shipped off to "tent city". Yay justice!

I also have to laugh at the $147 nightly rate and "free to come and go their job," as if most jobs can even cover the $53,508 annual cost of the cells. Look if you can afford that for a slightly better cell, you don't need to work
 
Isn't this special? :roll: If you have the money you don't have to stay with those 'others' even when you have killed a person.



Called “pay-to-stay,” the cells can be found in Seal Beach, Anaheim, Arcadia, Burbank, Glendale, Huntington Beach, Pasadena, Santa Ana and Torrance, at nightly rates of $127 to $143. In some cities, the non-violent offender’s cell doors are not locked, and the prisoners are free to come and go to their jobs on a daily basis.

Now that's what you call "equal justice"

I'm leaning to your point of view on this topic. However, don't forget that most people in JAIL as opposed to prison haven't been convicted of anything.
 
I'm leaning to your point of view on this topic. However, don't forget that most people in JAIL as opposed to prison haven't been convicted of anything.

That's true but evidently in California, some cities and counties have detention facilities for those convicted of various felonies.

California has a large number of diverse—and aging—county jail facilities.
California’s counties operate several types of jails, including court holding facilities, temporary holding facilities, and long-term facilities. All counties except Alpine operate at least one long-term facility, for a total of 123 facilities across the state. Almost half were built before 1980.

I'm just using the word, "jail", as it is understood in California - for those who wish to quibble over the definition of jail vs. prison
 
That's true but evidently in California, some cities and counties have detention facilities for those convicted of various felonies.



I'm just using the word, "jail", as it is understood in California - for those who wish to quibble over the definition of jail vs. prison

It's not quibbling. Prison is a penal institution. Jail SHOULD NOT be a penal institution. Jail's stated purpose is a remedy for flight risk or to protect society from allegedly dangerous people. It's a serious problem that jails don't presume their detainees as innocent.
 
It's not quibbling. Prison is a penal institution. Jail SHOULD NOT be a penal institution. Jail's stated purpose is a remedy for flight risk or to protect society from allegedly dangerous people. It's a serious problem that jails don't presume their detainees as innocent.

Jails are penal institutions in California. Commonly accepted words may often have different understandings in different groups.

GB Shaw said it well, many years ago, "‘England and America are two countries separated by the same language’" as did Oscar Wilde even further back (1887), "We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language" The same is true within America owing to its size, where people may seldom interact with those from other regions of the country.
 
Nope, that is what I call the "just us" system where special criminals get special treatment. One can hardly expect to balance a city budget by charging a handful of (268) prisoners a whopping $70K (combined) per year.
But the issue here is not the small number affected initially, but what happens as this takes off and becomes the norm - like the growth in for-profit prisons, or the way the monitoring & confiscation of property & cash and the suspension of civil rights, initially would only affect 'the very small number of big-time drug-dealers'.

Whenever something 'wrong' is allowed to assist in making something 'right', we are on the wrong track. Do you doubt this will be 'privatized' through corporate 'sweetheart deals (if not already), and then those same corps will use their capital wealth gained to further bribe (legally or otherwise) the legislatures to enact more legislation & regulation benefiting themselves (the public be damned).

I'm leaning to your point of view on this topic. However, don't forget that most people in JAIL as opposed to prison haven't been convicted of anything.
Exactly!

Jails have a high percentages of people in the system who have not (yet, or perhaps never will) be convicted. To see the absurdity of this new scam (and I'd also claim it's unconstitutionality), reference my above paragraph concerning the war-on-drugs as it relates to simple things like the summary confiscation of your legally-earned cash by greedy local law enforcement, along with the loss of your constitutional rights as said law enforcement brings their trained dog (or claims verbal statement from some supposed mystery unseen 'confidential informant') to circumvent your rights to 'unreasonable search, seizure, & due process' .

This is the financial purchase of freedoms (no matter how small), and strikes me as a very bad precedent.

Edit: Just saw the discussion on 'penal institution' occurring while I was composing my post , and I really don't want to add further to the debate on semantics - but, my county institution I referenced is both penal and holding, therefore the content of my post reflects this.
 
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Isn't this special? :roll: If you have the money you don't have to stay with those 'others' even when you have killed a person.

Called “pay-to-stay,” the cells can be found in Seal Beach, Anaheim, Arcadia, Burbank, Glendale, Huntington Beach, Pasadena, Santa Ana and Torrance, at nightly rates of $127 to $143. In some cities, the non-violent offender’s cell doors are not locked, and the prisoners are free to come and go to their jobs on a daily basis.

Now that's what you call "equal justice"

This is only a step away from being able to hire substitutes.
 
Isn't this special? :roll: If you have the money you don't have to stay with those 'others' even when you have killed a person.

Called “pay-to-stay,” the cells can be found in Seal Beach, Anaheim, Arcadia, Burbank, Glendale, Huntington Beach, Pasadena, Santa Ana and Torrance, at nightly rates of $127 to $143. In some cities, the non-violent offender’s cell doors are not locked, and the prisoners are free to come and go to their jobs on a daily basis.

Now that's what you call "equal justice"

This seems to violate the intent of the 14th Amendment. One Law for All.
 
Personally I think that convicted criminals who are incarcerated should always be made to pay for their room and board.
 
And if they refuse to work? Let's throw in that they have no more assets.

Based on the brutality of our penal systems, I think unfortunately I know the answer to "if they refuse to work."
 
And if they refuse to work? Let's throw in that they have no more assets.

Then they build up debt to be paid back once they are released and they also can't buy any goodies in prison.
 
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