What is this story not telling us because this seems like peonage to me?

Pay to stay: Florida inmates charged for prison cells long after incarceration

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It's called "pay-to-stay", charging inmates for their prison stay, like a hotel they were forced to book. Florida law says that cost, $50 a day, is based on the person's sentence. Even if they are released early, paying for a cell they no longer occupy, and regardless of their ability to pay.

Not only can the state bill an inmate the $50 a day even after they are released, Florida can also impose a new bill on the next occupant of that bed, potentially allowing the state to double, triple, or quadruple charge for the same bed.

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Summary:

18 year old sentenced to 7 years in prison. Sentence changed to 10 months of youth boot camp. She successfully completed, and 10 years later she's not offended again, turned her life around and is trying to get into the healthcare field. Florida has a program which allows people like this to not have their convictions count against them to get healthcare licensure so long as they meet certain criteria.

She applied for the program and found out the state of Florida is charging her $50 a day for the 7 years in prison that she never served and still says she owes all $127,000 to the state, so she's not being allowed to have her career.

Ron "conservative small government and pro-freedom" DeSantis endorses this.

How do you know that he endorses this?

Psycho Bunny said:

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Food for thought. Stop committing crimes and wont have to worry about paying for your stay in jail.

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You insensitive racist!

Psycho Bunny said:

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Food for thought. Stop committing crimes and wont have to worry about paying for your stay in jail.

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...a jail sentence you never even served.

Show me the bill for Mexico and other foreign countries then I will pay attention.

Is this the "Harper Lee" thread?

Leave DeSantis out of this for a moment.

I fully understand restitution. That's for harm and costs resulting from harm that include prosecution costs. Okay.

But I am having some issues and have to ask, does Florida have private prisons that charge the state and on that, this is based?

They have private prisons. The state had to take some of them over last year due to mismanagement. The same fifty dollars a day applies.

The contract with the private prisons requires them to cost the state seven percent less than the state run facilities.

Florida inmates are also not paid for work while incarcerated with a few exceptions.

TequilaMockingbird said:

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Psycho Bunny said:

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Food for thought. Stop committing crimes and wont have to worry about paying for your stay in jail.

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You insensitive racist!

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Explain to me that not committing crimes is racist.

AtticusMatlock said:

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They have private prisons. The state had to take some of them over last year due to mismanagement. The same fifty dollars a day applies.

The contract with the private prisons requires them to cost the state seven percent less than the state run facilities.

Florida inmates are also not paid for work while incarcerated with a few exceptions.

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My late uncle had a daughter that married into a family wherein a prison warden was a relative and they actually had holiday meals there. Always seemed bizarre to me.

So, from what you said, all commisary money has to come from outside and not as a result of their own efforts?

Look I am not a huge believer in prison rehabilitation for murders and rapists since B-Mod is not allowed. But there are prisoners who went wrong and can be reached, IMO. Prison farms helped that a lot. Offset costs, fed the prison population and then could be sold to offset prson costs to the state.

Psycho Bunny said:

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Food for thought. Stop committing crimes and wont have to worry about paying for your stay in jail.

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We can all agree that they shouldn't commit crimes. Charging them to stay in prison is bull*****

Sid Farkas said:

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Being convicted of a felony and sent to prison has consequences.

I do everything i can to avoid it - and have been successful for +60 years. Now that i think about, it hasn't been all that hard.

These people would have to pay for room and board if they hadn't chosen to commit crimes...better to have them pay it than you and i.

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They'd also be able to earn money to pay for the room and board. If we're going to treat them like people on the outside, give them a welfare check.

I think we can now all agree this isn't an apples to apples comparison.

rwtxag83 said:

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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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Psycho Bunny said:

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Food for thought. Stop committing crimes and wont have to worry about paying for your stay in jail.

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We can all agree that they shouldn't commit crimes. Charging them to stay in prison is bull*****

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I completely agree. If there is a responsibility to incarcerate criminals (and clearly, there is), that cost should be borne by the general taxpayers. It's part of the cost of keeping your society safe, and it's always been this way.

An offender has a court mandated obligation to lose their freedom and remain behind bars for their sentence. That should be where it ends. When you walk out of the prison at the end of your sentence, that should be where your obligations to the general citizenry also end. You would have 'paid your debt to society'.

If someone also owes $50/day on top of that, almost all offenders are basically given a life sentence because all but a few will never be able to meet that financial obligation.

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I can understand the general concept, but tend to agree here. If they wanted to treat it similar to an OAG civil lien that could only apply to windfalls (winning the lottery etc), then maybe? overall - do the time, and get back to becoming a productive citizen if possible.

It appears the lien is supposed to be for 3 years after incarceration, which I would think means after 3 years it no longer follows them (making me wonder why this would still be following the person in the article; maybe understanding it incorrectly).

interesting article here: https://www.fdle.state.fl.us/FCJEI/Programs/SLP/Documents/Full-Text/Almonte,-Yuberky-paper.aspx

Question number 4 inquired in regards to the combined total amount of inmate fees charged for 2011 and 2012 calendar years. Based on the survey results:
24 (68.57%) agencies provided a monetary answer which totaled $30,735,560.00. The lowest reported amount was $1.00 and the highest amount was $5,634,854.05.
9 (25.71%) agencies did not provide a monetary answer to this question.
2 (5.71%) agencies reported zero amounts of inmate fees charged.

Question number 5 inquired in regards to the combined total amount collected from inmate fees for the 2011 and 2012 calendar years. Based on the survey results:
25 (77.14%) agencies provided a monetary answer which totaled $10,885,000.00. The lowest reported amount was $1.00 and the highest amount was $1,236,594.00.
5 (14.28%) agencies did not provide a monetary response.
3 (8.57%) agencies reported zero amounts collected.

Question number 6 inquired in regards to the combined total amount of uncollected inmate fees for the 2011 and 2012 calendar years. Based on the survey results:
19 (54.28%) agencies provided a monetary answer which totaled $17,682,419.00. The lowest reported amount of uncollected inmate fees was $34,809.42 and the highest amount was $4,049,790.04.
10 (28.57%) agencies did not provide a monetary answer to this question.
3 (8.57%) agencies skipped answering this question.
3 (8.57%) agencies reported zero amounts of uncollected inmate fees

TequilaMockingbird said:

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Psycho Bunny said:

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Food for thought. Stop committing crimes and wont have to worry about paying for your stay in jail.

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You insensitive racist!

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or don't even commit a crime and have the prosecutor and judge make one up

I support paying for the time you are actually in prison, but charging you for time you aren't in, is BS (see early release).

Additionally, you should be allowed to work off your "rent" while in prison assuming you are not in solitary or in bad standing.

Doesn't giving prison inmates free room and board create a perverse incentive for poor people to commit crime?

AtticusMatlock said:

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Summary:

18 year old sentenced to 7 years in prison. Sentence changed to 10 months of youth boot camp. She successfully completed, and 10 years later she's not offended again, turned her life around and is trying to get into the healthcare field. Florida has a program which allows people like this to not have their convictions count against them to get healthcare licensure so long as they meet certain criteria.

She applied for the program and found out the state of Florida is charging her $50 a day for the 7 years in prison that she never served and still says she owes all $127,000 to the state, so she's not being allowed to have her career.

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She doesn't have to pay the $127K if she foregoes healthcare licensure, correct? On the surface this would seem to be an unfair expense, but consider that a felony conviction means that you have absolutely no shot at a state licensure in just about any field (or at least it used to mean that anyways).

You could actually argue that this is a progressive policy as this provides a once impossible pathway to licensure. There are reasons that felons with drug convictions are discouraged/prohibited from working healthcare. I receive the Texas Board of Medical Examiners emails and every week or so there are licensed long-practicing providers of all disciplines who have just had their licenses suspended because of drug impairments. The last thing you want to do is put someone with a history on the road to licensure. The relapse rates are high when they have access to the narcotics cookie jar.

What's the problem? Even the dumbest crooks can cover the $50 per day with a smash and grab on their way home from visiting their parole officer.

This creates a moral hazard for prisons to release criminals early so that they can double charge for the bed.

I thought that's why prisoners worked the laundry, cafeteria, fields, cleaning duty, etc………

Was that made clear to her during her sentencing? If not, then shame on the state and that amount should be wiped off her record too.

If it was apart of the agreement to avoid 7 years in jail, then…

I noticed there's no reference to the crime she committed. 7 years sounds like more than a casual crime.

AtticusMatlock said:

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They have private prisons. The state had to take some of them over last year due to mismanagement. The same fifty dollars a day applies.

The contract with the private prisons requires them to cost the state seven percent less than the state run facilities.

Florida inmates are also not paid for work while incarcerated with a few exceptions.

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Need to eliminate those exceptions

I'm pretty conservative… making someone pay for a jail cell they aren't using and also charging the next two or three people for that same cell is a scam. Plain and simple. The prison system is not out any money because a prisoner gets early-release. How is someone supposed to get straight with this hanging over their head?

Absolutely charge them for their days in jail. $50 doesn't seem high enough, really. But once they're out it is not justifiable.

We should broaden this and start charging $1000 per day per illegal to their home countries.

Not sure why Florida is being singled out...every state but Hawaii charges inmates to stay:

https://www.rutgers.edu/news/states-unfairly-burdening-incarcerated-people-pay-stay-fees