Nearly every state requires incarcerated individuals to pay for room, board and basic services under so-called “pay-to-stay” laws. In 2019, Illinois became one of the first to repeal such a law—a move that prompted Brittany Friedman, assistant professor of sociology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, to investigate what made that repeal possible.
How one state’s repeal of a prison ‘pay-to-stay’ law could guide national reform
