That'll be one dollar, please.

I think people in jail should have to pay for their stay. I don't see why my tax dollars are paying for these people who committed a crime to have a roof over their heads, food in their bellies and time to work out. I say, give them a job. They can stuff envelopes, I guess. I am sure that I could come up with plenty of jobs for inmates to do to earn their keep. They could have a grid denoting the job and the
amount of money that job earns. I think that you could pay for your jail stay with money that you had in your savings account, but not if you got that money by committing a crime. For example, if you robbed a bank and went to jail because of it, you obviously could not keep that money, much less pay for your stay at Camp Cupcake with it. Also, the money has to come from the criminal, not his family. No one can pay for your jail stay but you.
I also am a proponent of getting educated while in the clank. BUT, I don't think it should come for free. I do think that once a criminal has paid for their degree and received it, they could be given the chance for a different level of prison employment, and thereby earn more money. I think that the menu should be paid for. So, if you are not making enough money because you are a lazy, feeling-entitled kind
of prisoner, you eat cheapest crap because that's all you can afford. You want a pillow to rest your (better be a repentant) head on? That will be one dollar, please.
I bet this system would better prepare prisoners to live in the "free world" than our current system and I bet the inmates would work harder in order to buy better food, clothes, priviledges. I also think that they would not be so quick to commit another crime just to get back into prison because the real world is too hard to deal with.