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106 Mich. L. Rev. First Impressions 1 (2007-2008)
Pay-to-Stay Programs in California Jails

handle is hein.journals/mlro106 and id is 5 raw text is: PAY-TO-STAY PROGRAMS IN CALIFORNIA JAILS Sheriff Michael S. Carona* t INTRODUCTION When a person has committed a criminal offense, he or she must be pun- ished to vindicate the law, to acknowledge the suffering of the victim, and to deter future crimes. Imprisonment-the method commonly used to carry out this punishment-becomes increasingly problematic when our jails and prisons, especially in California, are bursting at the seams. As the Sheriff of the eighth largest jail system in the nation, I am responsible for the con- finement and care of thousands of inmates in the Orange County Jail system. With a growing inmate population and a shortage of beds, I con- tinue to look for new and innovative ways to house local inmates while they serve their debt to society. Pay-to-stay jails is one method that has received recent attention in the media. California regulations circumscribe pay-to- stay programs, ensuring that the programs provide a useful supplement to standard correctional strategies-and that the purported disparities that in- form the popular conceptions of the programs are never realized. I. BACKGROUND ON PAY-TO-STAY PROGRAMS For some people, pay-to-stay jails conjure up a perception of country club correctional living for affluent, influential, and privileged Califor- nians. This belief may have been somewhat fostered by the hyperbole of a newspaper editorial stating that pay-to-stay jails in California operate like secret velvet-roped nightclubs of the correctional world. But what is ignored is that pay-to-stay jails, just like county jails, are subject to Title 15 of the California Code of Regulations, which governs how a jail operates. These regulations cover food services, access to tele- phones, work furlough, rules and disciplinary penalties, inmate discipline, * Sheriff of Orange County, California; Member, Emergency Response Senior Advisory Committee for the Homeland Security Council. I have been Sheriff of Orange County for nine years and an active member of the law enforcement community for more than thirty years. Readers may be aware that I recently was indicted by a federal grand jury on several charges relating to actions allegedly taken before and during my time in office. I am taking a sixty day leave of absence, but I will return to my position as soon as I have cleared my name. This Commentary has nothing to do with these indictments; instead it reflects lessons I've learned from my long service as Sheriff of Orange County. T Suggested citation: Michael S. Carona, Commentary, Pay-to-Stay Programs in Califor- nia Jails, 106 MICH. L. REV. FIRST IMPRESSIONS (2007), http://www.michiganlawreview.org/ firstimpressions/vol 06/carona.pdf.

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