Jail and Prisons Comparison
Kristofer Kem
CJA/234
October 18, 2012
Luis Cintron
Jail and Prisons Comparison
Most people do not realize that there are differences between jails and prisons. Jails hold people awaiting trial or people that are sentenced for a short term, which is usually less than a year. That is jails place in corrections. Prisons hold people that are convicted of crimes and sentenced for a longer term. In the United States, jails are most often run by sheriffs and/or local governments and are made to hold individuals awaiting charges for their case, serving time for a misdemeanor sentence, or they have been convicted and are waiting to get transported to prison. Jails were mostly dark, filthy, and overcrowded in the 1800’s. There was no separation between men and women, the sane and the insane, the young and the old, and the convicted and the un-convicted.
The state and federal prison systems are very much alike, but have many differences which make both systems unique. Many people refer to the federal system to be associated with white collar criminals, while state prisoners are blue collar criminals. Under federal system, criminals usually are incarcerated for extended periods of time. Since the early 1800s, the state prison has been in existence with the first prison being the Sing Sing state prison. The Sing Sing state prison is one of the oldest prisons and is still in use today. The original history of the federal prison system dates back to the 1890’s but it was not until 1930 that a bill establishing a federal prison system was signed by president Hoover that would start the building of actual federal facilities.
The growth of the federal prison system continued to rise because the United States government created more federal laws with the times of white collar crimes and bank robberies. In the federal system, security levels classify prisoners and institutions as administrative, high, medium, low, and