A California police department is letting people found guilty of misdemeanors that include jail time pay fees to avoid getting put into rough prisons.

The Fremont Police Department has started a "Pay-to-Stay" that lets prisoners pay $155 a night to stay in the cushy Fremont detention facility, as opposed to the larger, rougher Oakland or Dublin County jails.

"It's still a jail; there's no special treatment," Lt. Mark Devine, a Fremont police official who oversees the program told the Fremont Argus. "They get the same cot, blanket and food as anybody in the county jail, except that our jail is smaller, quieter and away from the county jail population."

The police department admitted that it looked at comparable hotel rates to determine how much to charge each inmate in the revenue-starved county. The department is also not making these low, low rates available to anyone with gang affiliations or a history of violent crimes.

"This place is for a person who has committed a petty theft or a DUI," Devine told the Argus. "It's for people who need to serve one or five, or maybe 10 days in jail."

The American Civil Liberties Union has some issues with the program, however.

"There should not be one form of punishment for those who can afford to pay and a different form of punishment for those who can't," said Carl Takei, an ACLU official.

ACLU. Always hatin' on the privileging of the rich.

[Photo by Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group]