So right now in order to get jail sorting when I suck at jailing or want all the 20's at the top, I have to pay for a full lockdown. Which is fine when nobody has contributed towards the pot. However, when people have put .25, .5 or .75 into the pot, I have to decide between getting sorting and throwing away the partial credits people have contributed or contributing myself and miss out on that great feature. 

So why not give jail sorting to everyone who contributes? I believe the sorting works based on time since you last launched a full lockdown, right? IIRC it's if you've thrown a jail in the last hour, you get sorting. For partial jails you could always just do .25=15, .5=30 and .75=45 minutes. 

I can't really see a reason to oppose this, so it has my vote. Would love the sorting feature when I help throw a lockdown.

I would agree with this. Or, a modified version would be to give sorting to people who contribute .75 or 1 full credit. The reason for this is because it feels like people put in .25 just to stop others from getting the sorting (and/or to get notified when the jail is thrown) and that's super frustrating. Jail will sit at .25 all day for reasons like that. 

Or an alternative to that alternative...they could just make it so the one who contributes the remainder of the share would get the sorting for a shorter period of time than the full credit lockdown...

I agree with this also, seems fair if people are spending any amount credits in a lockdown that they have some advantage over those who haven't had an input into the lockdown.