Should Jails Charge Inmates For Their Stay?

[dgridley]

Been reading more and more lately about cost cutting measures in jails and prisons from eliminating meals to charging for family visits. Now I see there is a move to charge white-collar inmates $140+ per day to cover the cost of their incarceration.

Good idea?

In my opinion, putting a price tag on inmates sets a dangerous course.. before long we might be tempted to abuse that concept and keep certain prisoners in longer than needed or maybe even sentence inmates to longer sentences initially as a source of revenue.

What do you think?

Charge Inmates To Stay In Jail? Riverside County Eyes $5M Revenue Boost CBS Los Angeles

[Latina]

Tonight on the local news they discussed the possibility of charging for inmate visits. I disagree with it.

[dgridley]

Like I say, once they start putting a price tag on inmates, my feeling is it can lead to all sorts of abuses..

[Judy]

I think it is a bad idea. They do need to give some sort of exchange back to society to pay for their keep, not necessarily money.

Hopefully they would have learned a job skill, but so many of our crims are illiterate and end up in the system by accident or ignorance.

There is a criminal rehab program - Criminon About Criminon International so the person can regain their pride and give back to society without it being forced on him, as in the case of charging fees.

[dgridley]

This might be unpopular but shorter jail terms for certain offenses might be in order.. when you have 1 out of every 100 people either in jail or in prison, maybe you can cut costs by not sending so many to jail in the first place and putting them to work on infrastructure instead.