Pay to stay (imprisonment)

In the United States, pay-to-stay is the practice of charging prisoners for their accommodation in jails. The practice is controversial, because it can result in large debts being accumulated by prisoners who are then unable to repay the debt following their release, preventing them from successfully reestablishing themselves in society. In 2015, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio published a comprehensive study of the pay-to-stay policy throughout the state of Ohio, the first detailed study of its kind.