Inmates to Pay for Their Upkeep - Godfather Politics

If Jeff Stone, a supervisor for Riverside County, California gets his way, inmates may soon be charged for their daily upkeep in county jails.

Cities, counties, states and federal government are facing financial deficits. Without being able to raise taxes, the only way these various government agencies can survive is to cut services and personnel anywhere they can.

In some cases, the jails and prisons have been hit hard with cuts, which has led to increased danger for the remaining guards and prison personnel. In other cases, jails have been forced to release some prisoners early along with others that were convicted of lesser non-violent crimes.

Jeff Stone has a different idea of how to maintain the county jail and introduced an ordinance that would charge inmates for their daily upkeep. Currently, Stone calculates that it costs the county approximately $143 per day per inmate. Being sentenced to 30 days in the county jail would cost someone $4,290. A 6 month sentence would be $26,097 and a 1 year stay in the county lock up would total up to a whopping $52,195.

He explained that many of the county inmates were convicted of white collar crimes and will more likely be able to afford to pay the daily upkeep. If they are unable to pay the fees, Stone said the county will put a lien on any real property the inmate owns.

Stone estimates that this ordinance will bring in about $5 million of revenue to the county jail which will go a long way to help fund the jail operations.

I for one believe this is an excellent idea and should be adopted by counties across the country. After all, jail is the last place men and women should have a free ride and live off the expense of others.

Tagged with

California, county jail, inamtes, Jeff Stone, Riverside County, upkeep

Pamela

Good job, well thought out. We are all ready paying now and now you want entire families to pay for the crime of one member, leaving the family in many cases now-bankrupt and having to depend on who for the needs of their daily lives?

Have you really thought this out? I don't think so. I see beyond the base concept here, and see where it would lead.

You are back to the "sins of the father" theory making everyone in a family responsible for the actions of one person.
This has a surface appearance of a great idea, but is it really? Who determines who is to pay? Our justice system is so screwed up all ready I certainly wouldn't trust a judge to determine who is responsible for the bill. He might decide the grandparents need to pay if the individual, wife and children, parents, brothers and sisters can't pay the bill, and then go after aunts/uncles, cousins etc. By the way, we are all paying for the person all ready and so you want us to pay again and even more?
GuyFawkes

Jeff Stone's idea is merely the attempts of a morally corrupt politician to justify and extend his uselessness as a government lackey. People like him are a drain on the public finances. Every year millions of innocent non violent citizens are kidnapped by their governments and locked up. Now Stone wants them to pay for it. The way it works in America is you should get the services for which you pay. If I want a pizza I pay for it, if you want to give me a pizza you pay for it. If you want to lock up innocent nonviolent citizens against their will, you should pay for it. If the people want you locked up the people should pay for it. Most prisoners are in jail for political crimes, not identified in the bible, a Christian justice system would be much fairer, you wouldn't have all of these political crimes and sentences created just to stop minorities from procreating and voting and you wouldn't have people like Jeff Stone leaching off the taxpayers. There should be no prisons, if someone does something seriously wrong Kill Them. If it does not warrant killing them Let Them Go or deal with it in a Civil manner.
TedRWeiland

The Bible has an even better idea:

'…if he have nothing [with which to pay the required restitution], then he shall be sold for his theft.' (Exodus 22:3)

"A thief is indentured until he has paid the required two-, four-, or five-fold restitution [depending upon the nature of his crime] to either his victim or to the purchaser of his indentured service…. Any proceeds from that servitude would be divided among their victims. Restitution and indentureship would eliminate any need for prisons, and the deterrent effect would reduce theft in society.

"Under Yahweh’s law, the person at fault is responsible for damages – not an insurance company. Insurance companies contribute to irresponsibility and lawlessness by sheltering people from paying for the full consequences of their actions:

"The failure of a society to ground itself on restitution, or its departure from this principle, means a growing necessity for costly protection by means of insurance. Much insurance is, all too often, a form of self-restitution, in that the buyer pays for protection against irresponsible people who will not make restitution. The large insurance premiums paid by responsible persons and corporations are their self-protection against the failure of the law to require restitution. (R.J. Rushdoony)"

For more, see "Amendment 8: Bail, Fines, and Cruel and Unusual Punishment" at http://www.missiontoisrael.org/biblelaw-constitut….
http://impeachobamacampaign.com Raymond

Are Roman Catholics Christians? http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0071/0071_01….
Matt

Hate to rain on y'all's parade, but putting a lien on a man's property for jail upkeep? Does this aptly augment a police state that would arrest Americans in an unConstitutional capacity? What if a man is found innocent of charges? Does he still have to pay up for being in jail at all?
Perhaps it might encourage law enforcement to make arrests solely for the intent of seizing property
soObvious

Bravo!! Maybe there is hope for America after all. Finally, a common sense idea that doesn't hurt the tax paying, law abiding citizen!!
http://twitter.com/BrandoFontaine @BrandoFontaine

the question is — why does it cost so much — its like we the tax payers have paid for the building/jail — the staff works for the tax payers — so why does it cost $143 dollars a day —- or 52,000 a year — that the average income for most people — you would think with all these inmates — there might be a group discount for the tax payer — we're getting screwed again I think
Pete0097

He had better watch out for the NAACP and the ACLU. They will make this a civil rights issue. However, it would also make it less attractive to do crimes. They could adjust the pay schedule based on communist doctrine to "From each according to their ability (to pay) to each for their needs. They could also adjust it for different payments for different charges. For example, although drug dealers make a lot of money, they don't show it on their tax returns so they should have higher rates whereas, drug users are usually broke and should only pay based on their addition costs. (although users should get detox instead of jail)
Flogging'sCheap

Inmates already pay for some of their keep – the ones that have prison jobs are taxed heavily by the prison system. Literally, inmates get to keep only pennies on every dollar they earn. I know because my step-son is in prison. In fact families are taxed as well. If we send him more than $10 to buy toiletries etc. in the prison store, the prison taxes it heavily so we don't do that. If they are concerned about money in the prison they could simply outlaw it, but like pols on the take, they just take their cut. Prison labor (the ones that can be let outside to work) is some of the cheapest labor one can buy. It's almost like slave labor. Inmates are willing to work for practically nothing just to get out of the four walls for a time. The state takes the lion's share of course!