Community Corner

Seal Beach Has No Vacancies for Naughty Starlets

Despite demand, the city's pay-to-stay jail isn't open to female celebrities with rap sheets.

Apparently, some places are so exclusive even the darlings of the tabloids can’t get in. Seal Beach, for example, is home to one of the most exclusive and sought after joints around: jail.

Recently, one of the bad girls of Hollywood came calling to serve some not-so-hard time at the Seal Beach City Jail. Known as a pay-to-stay prison, the Seal Beach slammer offers amenities not found elsewhere and charges "guests" a mere $100 per night. There's just one problem: It’s for men only. To change the, um, plumbing would cost too much, city leaders decided.

That's bad news for outlaw starlets, who face a dearth of pay-to-stay jails that accommodate women, said Seal Beach Police Chief Jeff Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick wouldn't name names, but the representative of a celebrity with a penchant for running afoul of the law recently suggested the jail consider catering to a female clientele. Police officials did analyze the costs and benefits of switching to a women’s jail, but the numbers didn't add up, Kirkpatrick said.

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However, the jail could use more business. It currently operates at a deficit of more than $100,000 a year.  At a city budget workshop Tuesday, Seal Beach officials discussed ways to boost the jail’s revenue. Mayor Michael Levitt suggested a study on "what it would cost to upgrade the jail to make it more pleasant" to attract more criminals.

Although there's no doorman or velvet rope, the jail doesn't admit just any old inmate. Applicants are screened with medical tests and interviews. If accepted, they gain access to an array of perks, including a $20-per-day work-furlough program that lets them leave jail each morning--wearing a tracking device--and go to work, returning at night.  

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“Clients” can also bring their own clothes and mp3 players to the jail, along with $100 in spending money, magazines and art such as photographs. They are given televisions, but perhaps cruelly and unusually, only have access to basic programming.

The TV situation used to be worse, Kirkpatrick said. When the jail first opened, inmates could tune in to just two stations, and one was the Disney Channel.


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