I ' m in Canada , I had never heard of this before it came up in a Black Lives Matter discussion about how the system oppresses minorities . I was shocked . It reminded me of the line in the opening sequence of Brazil originally was going to be called 1984 where the security minister is boasting about how prisoners have to pay the costs of their incarceration and interrogation . But then , the USA has private prisons , so why not ? Here in Canada , where most prisoner are paroled after about 13 of their sentence , I never heard of such a thing . I never heard of it in Europe , either . Presumably , a person recently paroled has limited ability to earn money and has trouble just getting a job and finding a place to live . Dumping extra costs on them ?