“After four months of prison ‘shock time’ for drunken driving in St. Louis County, Mo., Alex thought he was done with his sentence. Then he learned of another penalty: a $6,370 bill for the cost of his incarceration, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It was a punishment he never expected, never really had a chance to contest, and certainly could not afford as he tried to restart a life with a criminal record now trailing him. Alex is one of the luckier ones targeted by the Missouri Incarceration Reimbursement Act, a prison cost-saving program dating to 1988. Some inmates have been billed tens of thousands of dollars after the state learned they had enough to pay even just a portion of their costs.”