In order to make some money and cut down on overcrowding a California detention center has decided to offer prisoners the opportunity to upgrade to a nicer cell for the low price of $155 per night, according to Time.
A special area of the Fremont Detention Center has been set aside for convicts who don't mind paying extra to avoid spending time in the overcrowded county jails found in Oakland and Dublin. The "alternative confinement program" is only open for non-violent offenders who have not committed a sex crime and who have no gang affiliations.
While prisoners can avoid the violence and overcrowding of other prisons by upgrading it is not a hotel by any means.
"It's still a jail; there's no special treatment," Lt. Mark Devine, the Fremont police official overseeing the program, told The Argus. "They get the same cot, blanket and food as anybody in the county jail, except that our jail is smaller, quieter and away from the county jail population."
Prison officials believe that the program is a way for the cash-strapped county to raise some extra money, according to The Argus.
If the jail is able to house 16 inmates for two nights each week, a reasonable goal considering the jail has the capacity to house 58 inmates, the city of Fremont would turn a profit of $244,000 prison officials told The Argus.
"This place is for a person who has committed a petty theft or a DUI," Devine said. "It's for people who need to serve one or five, or maybe 10 days in a jail."
Carl Takei, an official with the American Civil Liberties Union, took issue with Fremont offering a special "jail for the rich," according to The Argus.
"There should not be one form of punishment for those who can afford to pay and a different form of punishment for those who can't," Takei said.
Fremont Mayor Bill Harrison heartily approved of the program while pointing out that similar programs exist elsewhere.
"People have done alternative jail services forever, whether you're talking about ankle bracelets or halfway houses," Harrison told The Argus. "These are people fulfilling an obligation to society while, at the same time, not burdening Fremont taxpayers. I'm proud that they're looking for ways to create revenue and are thinking outside the box."
