Charge Inmates To Stay In Jail? Riverside County Eyes $5M Revenue Boost
RIVERSIDE (CBS) — If you do the time in Riverside County, you better have the dime to pay for it.
KNX 1070's Mike Landa reports that's the driving sentiment behind one Riverside County supervisor's efforts to charge jail inmates for their time in custody.
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Supervisor Jeff Stone introduced an ordinance this week seeking reimbursements for the cost of jailing inmates that an estimated $143 dollars per day.
Stone told the Riverside Press Enterprise the county could reap as much as a $5 million windfall from the move.
If an inmate is unable to cover the costs, the county would put a lien against any real property they may own.
"And we have probably about 25 percent of people that do white-collar crimes in this county, and those are the ones that are going to be put in the county jails, they're going to be required to pay for their costs," said Stone.
Stone also hoped to charge a fee to all visitors to county prisons, but lawyers argued such a move would be unconstitutional.
