SALINAS, Calif.- As one public official put it, "You do the time, you pay the dime."
Central Coast News first told you Monday, about a new law in Riverside County to make inmates pay for their stay in jail.
The southern California county will charge inmates $142 for every night spent in the slammer.
Some county jails are talking about charging inmates fees for expenses like food, clothing, healthcare and security.
Right now taxpayers are footing the bill, $124 per night, per inmate in Monterey County jail.
In Santa Cruz County, it's $85 per inmate, per night.
So far, no county on the Central Coast plans on making inmates pay for their stay.
"If you have the money, you probably won't be in jail to begin with, you'll probably bail out. So what you are left with are the people who don't have the money to bail out...The people we'd be dealing with are people who aren't ever going to be able to pay," said Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller.
Monterey County said it experimented with these types of fees before, charging inmates a booking fee when they first get to jail, but it had little success.
San Benito County Sherirff's Department said its first priority is AB109 requirements, moving minimum security inmates to supervised monitoring and work release programs, which they do pay for.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff said he may visit Riverside County next year to take a look at how the program is going, but said the county would have to analyze whether it would work for inmates locally, many of whom are unemployed before and after they go to jail.
Miller said the same thing, "Tough revenue times, tough budget times, people are trying to do all kinds of things...But I'm not sure this one shows much promise. If it shows that it does have promise and the returns are good in Riverside County, we'll consider their results."
Two counties in Northern California have made inmates pay for some time. Placer County near Sacramento charges $118 a day and Madera County in the Central Valley bills inmates $73 a day.
