It could, but then again, it need not be the case. No one forces anyone to become a mercenary; no one forces a mercenary to accept a job with the standard repatriation bond; no one forces a mercenary to activate his repatriation bond. At least not legally. So there's no reason to assume that a law against forcing anyone to enter low berth would prevent repatriation bonds that only pay for low passage.IIRC, the low passage is what is assured on the repatriation bonds most mercenary units take as insurance they could go out the planet if all goes wrong. I guess if this is accepted as a standard mode for mercenaries, it could as wll be an accepted mode for taken fugitives.
I don't think any law enforcement organisation would pay for anything more than it was legally required to. The question is what the legal requirements were. One could easily justify an Imperial edict that directly forbade it (especially if the edict is a relic of the days when the Imperium was TL12, never rescinded, never updated). I don't think that would be a good idea, though. Or rather, best of both worlds, have a vaguely worded edict that leaves it to the individual duchy to define what the edict means by "safely", allowing an author or a referee to have Imperial law that says one thing in one duchy and another thing in another duchy and nothing one way or the other in a third.Of course they could go with better accomodations if they want so and assume the cost, but if taken by policial budget, I guess they would go no better than low passage.
Also, I very much doubt that there would be an edict that mandated that prisoners MUST be transported in low berths, so a world with a comprehensive bill of rights might insist on a prohibition against such a mode of transportation in its extradition treaties.
My take of the lethality of low berths is that it's practically risk-free (far below the resolution of the game rules) as long as there's competent medical supervision of the process; the CT rules I use for ham-handed medical incompetent free trader med-techs shipped to comply with manning requirements. However, there are lesser consequences possible, such as a rare debilitating "low berth syndrome" that may all but incapacitate a low passenger and linger for weeks. That, combined with urban myths about the Low Lottery and reports of what low berth deaths do result from faulty treatment being blown up by the media, results in many groundhuggers believing that low berth is dangerous.If (as in MT) the true risk of low berth is quite low, then there will be less legal objections to it. If (as in CT) the risk is higher, it may even be seen by most as a deterrent for fleeing the world where you did your crime.
Hans