(Kern) Stay at Lerdo costs more than Marriott

17 KGET.com -

It used to be called the Honor Farm, but Lerdo jail is becoming more dangerous by the day - and more expensive, too - according to a new report by the Kern County Grand Jury.

On average, it costs 129 dollars per day to house each inmate. You can get an executive room at the Downtown Marriott for that price. That's 47 thousand dollars a year, which is more than two semesters tuition at USC medical school.

There are nearly 27 hundred inmates in Lerdo's four units. That's more than 126 million dollars per year, three times what it's going to cost to build the new dorms at at Cal State Bakersfield.

The grand jury says because of prison realignment, every inmate released tends to be replaced by a more violent one.

There are 300 inmates serving sentences of three years or more.

Click here to read the whole grand jury report.