Inequality in everything: Upgraded prisons

Here's a disturbing example of what Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution would call "Markets in everything" -- "pay-to-stay" upgraded jail accommodations:

Anyone convicted of a crime knows a debt to society often must be paid in jail. But a slice of Californians willing to supplement that debt with cash (no personal checks, please) are finding that the time can be almost bearable.

For offenders whose crimes are usually relatively minor (carjackers should not bother) and whose bank accounts remain lofty, a dozen or so city jails across the state offer pay-to-stay upgrades. Theirs are a clean, quiet, if not exactly recherché alternative to the standard county jails, where the walls are bars, the fellow inmates are hardened and privileges are few.

How long until we offer rich people nicer courts too? Or let them buy their way out of their sentence?

PS As I am writing the post, I see that Alex Tabarrok at MR has already posted the link.

Comments

[Rob]

What is truly alarming is not that we permit some people to buy their way into cellblocks where they're less likely to be subject to gang violence and prison rape but that we have allowed the general prison population to be victimized by such behavior. Did I say "allowed"? When the defendant is someone society despises, such as sex offenders and high-profile white collar criminals, we laugh about the expected victimization and treat it as a welcome aspect of their punishment.

Regrettably, taking a tough zero-tolerance approach to prison violence and rape is something that's not popular with either prison guards, who don't want to rock the boat, or prisoners' rights advocates, who shrink from the increased penalties and harsher conditions that would be imposed on violators.

That, not the inequality in treatment, is the real outrage.