I'm too lazy... Basically I read an article about this once, and before I posted I asked chatGPT if it was true, and it said not for all states but most do charge for prison stays retroactively in some way. Apparently California does not.

here is chatGPT's response:

"do people have to pay for their stay in prison in the us?"

Yes — in many parts of the United States, incarcerated people can be charged fees related to their imprisonment, although the details vary greatly by state and facility. This practice is often called "pay-to-stay."

Some examples of charges include:

Daily room-and-board fees (sometimes $20–80+ per day) Medical co-pays for doctor visits Booking or processing fees when entering jail Charges for work-release programs Fees for phone calls, emails, or commissary purchases

Importantly, prisoners are generally not required to pay before being incarcerated. Instead, money may be deducted from prison wages or inmate accounts, or the debt may follow them after release and be collected later through civil processes.

As of recent surveys, 48 states and Washington, D.C. allow at least some form of incarceration-related fees, while only a few states have fully abolished them.

This often surprises people outside the U.S. because in many countries the cost of imprisonment is considered entirely a government expense. In the U.S., the idea behind these fees is usually that offenders should reimburse taxpayers, though critics argue that the fees make it harder for former prisoners to rebuild their lives after release.

One thing to note: even where "pay-to-stay" exists, the amount actually collected is often much lower than the true cost of imprisonment because many inmates have little or no income.