Welcome to Jail - Here's Your Bill

The Christian Science Monitor has a startling article about the growing practice of states and localities charging their prisoners for the costs of their incarceration. Aside from practical concerns - how are ex-prisoners, who are generally poor to begin with and nearly unemployable once released, going to pay these debts - this seems just downright wrong. These "guests" are there only due to the police power of the state to keep them there. If the costs of incarceration are overwhelming communities (as they seem to be), the better option would be to make greater use of non-incarceration sentencing, particularly for non-violent drug offenders.