If you have the money and you’re doing the time, it is best to be incarcerated in Fremont, California.
The Fremont Police Department is giving the option of paying a one-time fee of $45 and an additional $145 per night to prisoners who have short sentences for minor charges so they can stay in facilities other than county jails.
Lt. Mark Devine, a Fremont police official who runs the pay-to-stay program, told the Argus, “It’s still a jail; there’s no special treatment. 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.”
The ACLU is unhappy with the program, labeling it “a jail for the rich” to KQED news. However, the city of Fremont likes the idea; Devine said Fremont would gain $244,000 annually if 16 prisoners opted to spend two nights per week in the facility offered by the program.
Fremont is not alone in offering the program; roughly a dozen California cities have already offered similar options as of 2007.
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