Riverside Charges Inmates for Stays In 'Prison Hotels' (POLL)

Should inmates have to pay the county back for taxpayer money spent on their jail time? This week, Riverside County supervisors unanimously voted yes.

As the Los Angeles Times reports, Supervisor Jeff Stone called jails "prison hotels," costing an average of $142.42 a day.

According to the Press-Enterprise, he said "I think we're blazing a new trail here. In these very challenging economic times, I believe this can be a source of revenue. I believe this can return 3 to 5 million (dollars) a year during these very challenging economic times."

Supervisor Stone told the Huffington Post, "Inmates will be charged $140 for each day in jail and for drug testing, medical care and parol costs." He explained that a defendent who uses a public defender will also be charged for the attorney fees if he is found to have equity, such as a property. "If the parolee does not have liquid funds to pay, the County will put a lien against the property to receive payment when the property is sold. The County will do the same on the parolee's parents' property if that's the only way to get the money."

County Counsel Pamela Walls, however, wrote in a memo to the supervisors that it will be hard to collect reimbursements because "those defendants who are convicted of crimes and incarcerated typically have limited funds." Furthermore, she argues that because defendants will have to pay victim restitution, fines and penalties first, few will have money left to cover jail time costs.

And yet, Riverside County Superior Court Executive Officer Sherri Carter said the county has already successfully increased collections in 2009-2010 by $1 million. In a letter to the supervisors, Carter wrote, "I am confident this trend will continue, and look forward to future positive reports to the county."

Supervisor Stone told HuffPost LA that he expects the charges to go into effect December 1. He added, "Of course, if a defendant is found innocent, he will not be charged for the time he served."

Quick Poll

Should LA County charge inmates to stay in jail?

Yes: LA is broke, and prisoners don't deserve taxpayer money.

No: It is unjust and unfair to the inmates.

Other: I will explain in a comment below.

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Comments

[DamOTclese]

02:18 PM on 12/21/2011

If we could get that Scientology mobster Jeff Stone indicted and sent to prison, maybe his own new fascist laws could be used to get the money back out of him that he's swindled and stolen from our country.

[pff136]

08:39 PM on 11/15/2011

Wow! This is terrible. It looks good at first because they'll say it will stop people from doing things that gets them put in jail. But why go after the parents' property??? And something like this that starts out with "good intentions" always turns bad. Then when govt. wants to confiscate someone's property, they'll find a way to get them in jail. Sorry to be so pessimistic but I can't help it. I saw a terrible thing happen to a good person regarding errors made in child support records from 1989 (no computers, hand-written errors by the county court clerk's office) and they ran up an arrearage on him when he was paying! Next thing you know, they pretty much threatened his whole life; threatened him with jail time, confiscation of property, etc etc. They told him his daughters even though beyond age of emancipation would continue to run up the arrearfage until they were 50 if he couldn't catch up right away with the arrearrage!!! This is just another way to run people into the ground. What if people are put in jail for non-violent crimes such as using medical marijuana in a state where it's supposed to be legal???? You gonna' take their property too??? Bad idea!!

[grinch337]

08:50 AM on 11/11/2011

Here's an idea: reform your legal code so that you're not locking up 1% of your adult population, and now you don't need all those expensive public defenders and prisons. With the way things are going, prison labor and privatization schemes -and- corporate political power, among other things, are on a collision course with one another.

[EquinsuOcha]

10:02 PM on 11/10/2011

Does this mean that when economic times are better, Riverside county is going to stop the practice?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

This is a de facto seizure, unrelated to the commission of a crime. There are so many things wrong with this that the sheer volume of lawsuits against it will outweigh any financial gains that they may have ever hoped to benefit from.

This is what happens when you put stupid people in charge of government.

[Arthur Kay]

09:03 PM on 11/10/2011

This reminds me of the witch trials. "Witches" were required by law to pay for there torture, court proceedings, hangings. Basically they would sell your properties to pay for your own funeral...while you were alive. Although they aren't killing people they are ending their physical existence in our world.

[grinch337]

08:53 AM on 11/11/2011

This reminds me of sharecropping after the civil war. Newly freed slaves essentially got locked down to the plantations again by the property owner essentially placed a lien on their harvested crop in exchange for housing and providing goods at the company store throughout the year.

[cultxpt]

11:54 AM on 11/10/2011

Why on earth would you not charge innocent people??? You're giving them free room and board at taxpayer expense!

[xenubarb]

11:44 AM on 11/10/2011

RIVERSIDE IS NOT LA COUNTY, IT'S RIVERSIDE COUNTY! LRN2GOOGLEMAP.

[Bladernr1001]

03:14 PM on 11/08/2011

This is a very very chilling development.

Government now has more incentive to incarcerate people...find ANYTHING on them to get paying people in jail.

Beware the unintended consequences.

[Lachelle Wolfe]

03:16 PM on 11/07/2011

They should have to grow their own vegetables , have a chicken farm so they have meat and eggs. Make them work, I don't care if it is chewing leather to soften it for coats and couches. No more weight rooms, TV's, computers or law libraries. It's prison not summer camp. They use to have to make license plates, bring that back and at least something will be made in america.

[Jennifer Blossom]

01:20 PM on 11/13/2011

What? Prison industry is a huge business!

[Tonja Brown]

10:47 PM on 11/05/2011

It won't work because the majority of the inmates are indigent and have no way to pay. What is the county going to do throw them back into jail for not paying? Garnish their wages? They will have to fire more people costing the county more money in an attempt to try to collect money that mose of the inmates do not have to begin with. I've attended hearings over the years with this same discussion and it has never been voted on or even sumitted to the Nevada Legislator's. It will lead to more lawsuits that the county cannot afford to pay to defend.

[xenubarb]

11:47 AM on 11/10/2011

Didn't you see the part about taking inmate's real property (if they own a house etc) to pay for jail?

This is neat. First you had a guy busted on some charge, you jail him. Then you kick him out when his time is up and steal everything of worth that he owns.

No, this is just wrong. Now you've got an indigent criminal more desperate than ever to keep things together by carjacking, bank robbing, or wishfully, jacking a certain idiot Supervisor for ransom.

(Seriously, don't do that. Like the Ransom of Red Bull, nobody will pay to get Jeff Stone back)

[Tonja Brown]

10:45 PM on 11/10/2011

These were the same concerns that came up during these hearings. That was one of the reasons it wouldhave led to litigation.

[pakaal]

10:42 PM on 11/05/2011

Seems to me this gives folks one more reason to take the "go down shooting" route rather than surrender. The phrase "paying twice for the same crime" also comes to mind.

On the upside, though, this solves the inconvenient problem of paying inmates for work, since they can now take the wages out of the "hotel" bill. Presto, slave labor!

[aviandonn]

06:15 PM on 11/05/2011

Excuse me? Liens will be placed against parent's property? Just under what law does he think he can confiscate the property of people who have not been convicted of a crime? Are we know going to punishing people for guilt by association? What a great country we're living in.

Why stop there? Why not confiscate the property of grandparents, siblings, cousins, children? And hey, if someone skips parole, just go arrest one of their relatives and send them to jail to finish out the sentence.

And I can just imagine all the anti-American, freedom-hating fools who are going to cheer this on and think it's just a peachy keen idea.

[madrediterra]

07:58 PM on 11/05/2011

It's a kind of grandfathering of criminality, matched with the Cheney-Guantanamo definition of a jail so great, you'd be glad to stay there. Since, in our society, only the have-nots actually lose at trial and go to jail, we know where this idea comes from.

[JackRusselTerrier]

05:19 PM on 11/05/2011

We have already seen what happens when private prisons are allowed to lobby the government for stricter laws. Prison population soars due to laws that enrich those invested in private prisons and bankrupts counties who have to pay for nonviolent offenders being put away for long sentences.

This is NOT justice. This is corruption.

[xenubarb]

11:53 AM on 11/10/2011

This is Riverside County and Jeff Stone. If you read his history, he is quite a slimy piece of work, yet Riverside elected him anyway.

This is the man who refuses to address the blatant human rights violations at Gold Base, Scientology's secret base in Riverside County. Why? Cuz he's tight buddies with the cult.

Riverside would benefit from a great flood that washed away this lousy Board.

[Sean Porter]

03:51 PM on 11/05/2011

Wouldn't that mean that Riverside County has a vested interest in jailing people for money?

[SoCalChris]

11:06 AM on 11/07/2011

On the surface it would seem not, since the money is covering costs already incurred, and there will never be a 100% collection rate. The county will still lose money on each incarceration, just less of it.

[Oula]

10:42 AM on 11/05/2011

When local authorities have a financial interest in imprisoning the population, the definition of "breaking the law" will become flexible to meet the financial desires of the local authorities. This is bad law that will inevitably lead to shenanigans and corruption.