Pay-to-Stay

The November, 2007, issue of First Impressions, the "on-line companion" to the Michigan Law Review, available here, has a symposium issue on "Pay-to-Stay Programs in Correctional Facilities."  Here's a description from the law review's website:

"Approximately fifteen California jails have implemented pay-to-stay programs.  These programs allow some offenders to pay a daily fee in order to serve their sentences in a city-run or privately managed correctional facility rather than a county jail.  In some programs, benefits include assignment to a private cell with a regular door, separation from violent offenders, access to the jail's movie collection, and the ability to carry an iPod or cell phone." 

Some of the articles in the symposium are these: Robert Weisberg, ""Pay-to-Stay in California Jails and the Value of Systemic Self-Embarrassment"; Kim Shayo Buchanan, "It Could Happen to 'You': Pay-to-Stay Jail Upgrades"; and Laurie L. Levenson and Mary Gordon, "The Dirty Little Secrets about Pay-to-Stay."   

Thanks to Timothy Taylor in the Journal of Economic Perspectives for pointing out this symposium.   

TSU