Yes.

That surprised me as well.

DA's working with the CCA… Kanye West had some words on this subject.

If the issue is so reduced to the matter of an (involuntary) private contract (as far as I see it; "owing" a private entity for "services" received), then as far as I can see, the prison as a private entity should be charged with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment.

I'm not saying that's the way things do work, in practice. But it seems the counter-point to their argument that the prisoner should pay for this imprisonment.

I hope some competent and socially-minded lawyers turn this into a multi-million dollar settlement. (Of course, they wouldn't make out so badly in that, either.)

It's also a strong argument, I think, for outlawing the privatization of prisons. When government determines imprisonment is needed, there should be no shirking directly executing that duty. And when government turns out to be wrong, it should pay -- for starters, the direct costs of its mistake, not to mention appropriate compensation to the wronged party.

This would also mean DA's could not directly invest in the prisons they are filling. Disgusting.

> charge you for time you spend involuntarily in prison

There should be a Constitutional amendment specifically banning this practice.

Honestly it should already be there under cruel and unusual punishment (obvious), due process (the process eventually said he was innocent so how can he be punished?) or attainder (punishing someone for something other than an illegal action). But since it's apparently not obvious, it wouldn't hurt to spell it out.