Criminal Justice: Pay as You Stay

When he recently completed a 15-month rap at Michigan’s Jackson state prison, Benjamin Ritholz boasted the rare distinction of having paid for paying his debt to society. Reason: Lens-maker Ritholz, who was convicted of trying to bribe the state optometry board, is a millionaire. And under a 1935 state law, Michigan requires rich prisoners to pay their way.

Michigan’s unusual statute sets no standard for judging which cons are rich enough to pay as they stay; the law says that an inmate who “appears” solvent enough is subject to being charged the daily $4 to $9 that it costs the state to keep him in jail. Few actually get into this fix; the state has collected only $30,000 from paying prisoners in the past nine years. But the possibilities are clear from the record of Lifer Roman Olezniczak (murder, bank robbery), the state’s top paying con. While earning $5 a month in the Jackson prison laundry, Olezniczak has over the past ten years shelled out $13,847.51 for his keep.