By Evie Liu

Staying in jail could be a nightmare, but it doesn't have to be.

In Los Angeles, prisoners could choose to do their time in a much cozier space instead of the overcrowded county jail - as long as you pay.

For $110 per day, price for a 3-star hotel room, prisoners can live in Beverly Hills Jail for a pretty much similar room with queen-size bed, sofa, desk, independent shower space and even a personal TV.

And there are more privileges for the money they paid. Here, prisoners are referred as “customers,” who can bring their own food material bought from grocery stores into the jail and cook in the kitchen. “Customers” are also allowed to wear their own comfortable clothes and slippers, read newspapers and even make unlimited phone calls directly from their rooms.

All these make the jail experience more like a short vacation.

Glendale City Jail has a relatively simple pay-to-stay program and therefore charges less. Prisoners can pay $85 per day to stay in Glendale with restricted telephone use and a public TV, which they cannot control over the channels.

Prisoners also have to obey the schedule of the jail - get up at 5 o’clock in the morning and go to bed at 7 in the evening. “The only thing we provide, really, is better security and better supervision,” said Juan Lopez, administrator at Glendale City Jail.

The biggest reason people choose to pay and do their time in municipal jails, according to Lopez, is to be separated from the county jail, which is usually overcrowded and sometimes dangerous.

“Nobody wants to go to the county jail,” said Lopez, “You will be put in a larger dormitory with a number of people that have committed a variety of different crimes, some of them might not be very nice.”

He also mentioned the poor sanitary condition in the county jail, since 50 or 60 people might need to share the same bathroom. “You can be exposed to a variety kind of illnesses,” said Lopez, “You might walk in there healthy and come out you never imagined.”

The pay-to-stay program sounds like a good deal for people with plenty of money to make life easier. However, not everyone can do it. The applications must be approved by both the court and the specific jail administration.

It usually depends on the nature of the crime, felons like violent offenders or sex offenders are not allowed to do their time in municipal jails. For one thing, the court might think felons should pay a heavier price for their crime. For another, cities also want to keep their jails safe and organized.

“We set up the qualifications pretty high to keep the program running in a very even pace,” said Erick Lee, division commander at Beverly Hills Jail.

People with health issues are not accommodated by municipal jails as well due to the limited medical care capability. “We are not equipped enough to handle prisoners with medical conditions,” said Lee, “If somebody is sick or have disease, we can’t held them.”

Paris Hilton, for instance, was rejected by Glendale City Jail since she was drug dependent. “We would end up spending more time on medical care for her,” said Lopez.

Even though one is qualified for all these criteria, it’s still very competitive to enroll in the pay-to-stay program, since there is a large demand. “If you have an option to come here, everyone that could afford it will do it,” explained Lopez.

Right now, about half of the 96 beds in Glendale City Jail are taken by pay-to-stay program, 15 for female and 30 for male. According to Lopez, sometimes they have a waiting list since more and more people begin to hear about this.

The pay-to-stay program is designed to offset the operation cost of the jail.

Last year, it cost Glendale up to $1.6 million to run the jail, and the pay-to-stay brought about $74,000 revenue. “It did very well,” said Lopez with a smile.

Lopez called this an “enterprise”, which is nothing different from running a hotel. Since almost every jail is running a pay-to-stay, it’s really about marketing and competition.

“It’s like going to expedia.com and looking for the best hotel to stay,” said Lopez while laughing, “There really should be a jailpedia.”

Glendale claims itself as the cheapest among all the similar programs. “We don’t price us completely out of range, we keep it at $85,” said Lopez, “When people check all the prices online, they will know where to go.”

Beverly Hills Jail does an audit every year to adjust their price and policy. In 2010, they amended the policy to allow inmates without health insurance to participate and therefore doubled the revenue within one year - from $28,241 to $61,227.

Having come to know the good of running the jail as a business, there is no doubt that jails are trying to make it more lucrative. And the pay-to-stay is just a start.

Glendale City Jail is planning on a new project. Families and friends don’t need to come to the jail to meet the prisoners, they can do a video chat via Skype with their loved ones. In this way, even your grandma thousands miles away in Virginia is able to see you and tell you she loves you.

Of course, all this sweet dream is based on your credit card, which will be billed $4 to $6 per minute for your talk - and half of the money goes to the jail fund. Yes it is ridiculously expensive, but you are in the jail, you don’t have other choice.

Some people claim that prisoners are supposed to serve their debt to society and should not live in such a comfortable way. But Lopez believes that prisoners also have a right to be treated with decency, “Just because they have committed a crime, it’s not up to us to play their punisher,” he said.

Randy Neitzke, jail supervisor at Beverly Hills Jail, shared the same point of view, “Many people make one-time mistakes, but they should be able to sleep with both eyes closed. We provide a safer environment for them.”

According to Erick Lee, the moral of California law is not to terrify people, but to give them the appropriate punishment. And for Lopez, the deprivation of liberty is an enough alarm for people. “Anytime you remove freedom to people, you are sending them a clear message. It does have an impact on them,” he said.

Lee makes it clear that no matter how good people are living in the jail, they are under strict control and don’t have any liberty. Prisoners have to be accompanied by jailers when they are cooking. Their phone calls are filtered and monitored. Jailers will also go through every item brought in the facility.

“Even though we are Beverly Hills, we run a great jail, it is still a jail. There is no red carpet,” said Lee.