For $82 a Day, Booking a Cell in a 5-Star Jail

It appears that the latest trend in corrections is providing a better class of jail cell for those who can afford to pay. Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times reports that a number of California jails offer "pay-to-stay" where, with court permission, one can lay down cash to get a cleaner, quieter and more private cell:

Many of the self-pay jails operate like secret velvet-roped nightclubs of the corrections world. You have to be in the know to even apply for entry, and even if the court approves your sentence there, jail administrators can operate like bouncers, rejecting anyone they wish.

"I am aware that this is considered to be a five-star Hilton," said Nicole Brockett, 22, who was recently booked into one of the jails, here in Orange County about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and paid $82 a day to complete a 21-day sentence for a drunken driving conviction.

Ms. Brockett, who in her oversize orange T-shirt and flip-flops looked more like a contestant on "The Real World" than an inmate, shopped around for the best accommodations, travelocity.com-style.

"It’s clean here," she said, perched in a jail day room on the sort of couch found in a hospital emergency room. "It’s safe and everyone here is really nice. I haven’t had a problem with any of the other girls. They give me shampoo."

For roughly $75 to $127 a day, these convicts — who are known in the self-pay parlance as "clients" — get a small cell behind a regular door, distance of some amplitude from violent offenders and, in some cases, the right to bring an iPod or computer on which to compose a novel, or perhaps a song.

Many of the overnighters are granted work furlough, enabling them to do most of their time on the job, returning to the jail simply to go to bed (often following a strip search, which granted is not so five-star).

Still, a pay-to-stay cell will not be confused with the Ritz-Carlton, or even Motel 6:

The cells at Santa Ana are roughly the size of a custodial closet, and share its smell and ambience. Most have little more than a pink bottle of jail-issue moisturizer and a book borrowed from the day room. Lockdown can occur for hours at a time, and just feet away other prisoners sit with their faces pressed against cell windows, looking menacing.

Ms. Brockett, who normally works as a bartender in Los Angeles, said the experience was one she never cared to repeat.

"It does look decent," she said, "but you still feel exactly where you are."