Upgrade your jail cell - for a price

Sgt. Bowles walks past a jail cell dorm for pay-to-stay inmates. Seal Beach’s small city jail has amenities that include flat-screen TVs, a computer room and new beds.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

An inmate who is serving four months for DUI stands in the recreation yard at the Seal Beach Detention Center.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Charente LaGarde, senior detention officer, is seen in the recreation yard through movie prop jail cell bars installed for filming at the Seal Beach Detention Center.

“We bend over backwards to make sure their basic needs are met. But they have to remember, it’s still a jail,” said Sgt. Steve Bowles, who runs Seal Beach’s pay-to-stay jail.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Charente LaGarde, senior detention officer, shows off skeleton keys, favored by movie companies that film here at the Seal Beach Detention Center.

Randy Neitzke, Beverly Hills Police jail supervisor, at the city’s facility. Today there are nearly 200 city jail beds for rent in Los Angeles and Orange counties, which have taken the most advantage of the option, by far.

Exterior view of the Beverly Hills Police Department.

The Beverly Hills Police Department is one of the Los Angeles County jail facilities offering the pay-to-stay option as an alternative to serving time in the county jail.

Randy Neitzke, Beverly Hills Police jail supervisor, looks out the window of the women’s pay-to-stay jail dorm.

Tracey Carter, lead police service officer, inside the Hermosa Beach jail, which ranks as the priciest of Southern California’s pay-per-stay jails at $251 a night.

A view of the inside of a Hermosa Beach jail cell.

Tracey Carter, lead police service officer, opens a jail cell door in the Hermosa Beach Police station jail.

Lt. Kelly Gordon, jail manager, in the exercise yard, at the Montebello jail, which offers a eight-bed dorm room for pay-to-stay inmates.

Lt. Kelly Gordon, jail manager, in the pay-to-stay jail cell dorm at the Montebello jail. The L.A. and Orange County district attorney’s offices said they have no set policy or procedure for agreeing to pay-to-stay sentences.

A view of a pay-to-stay jail dorm room at the Montebello jail.

Tanner Mester shows his scar where he was stabbed in the chest. Eric Lund, who argued he stabbed Mester to protect himself and a friend, pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and faced up to eight years in state prison. As part of a deal, he was granted probation with a year in jail. The judge agreed that for $100 a night, Lund would serve his sentence in Seal Beach.

Inmates crowd a dorm room inside the Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles. Brutality and overcrowding have long plagued the Los Angeles and Orange County jail systems.

An L.A. sheriff’s deputy walks by inmates during an inspection at the L.A. County Men’s Central Jail. The jail is currently under Justice Department scrutiny over concerns such as unsafe prisoner conditions, and similar allegations have been made by civil rights attorneys dating back to the 1970s.

An inmate in a six-bunk cell inside the Men’s Central Jail.

Walking single file, inmates at Theo Lacy Men’s Jail enter the mess hall to eat lunch.

Capt. Dave Wilson holds a press conference inside the Theo Lacey Facility in the city of Orange.