Despite the article's inane attempts to link this to sex crimes, I see nothing wrong with this. Housing and feeding prisoners is a huge drain on society; a prisoner who alleviates that drain absolutely deserves a more humane experience. That's not to say that everyone else doesn't deserve a more humane experience, but we simply can't afford it. No one is suggesting we close down shelters and start housing the homeless in five star hotels, and no one seems to be too bothered by that. On the whole I'd rather money be spent first on that than upgrading prisons.

EDIT: As to the idea that this somehow reduces the effective punishment: while that might be true for the ultra-rich for whom $10k is irrelevant (but since when do they go to prison anyways?), for everyone else, having to fund your own incarceration [directly, in addition to funding everyone else's via taxation,] seems to offset that.