For many Americans, contact with the criminal legal system comes with a hidden price tag. Without their knowledge, incarcerated people can often rack up large bills owed to the government to pay for the cost of their own incarceration. Sociologist Brittany Friedman explains how these "pay-to-stay" laws work, how civil lawsuits are used to collect that money after release, and why the push to reform these criminal legal fines and fees has drawn bipartisan support.

For more on this topic:

• Read the article mentioned in the episode, Civil Lawfare, co-authored by Friedman and published in the journal Social Problems

• Listen to her podcast, Exploitation Nation

• Check out her book, Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons

• Read her SSN key findings brief, Ending Modern-Day Slavery in California