What Is the Difference Between Jail and Prison?
The fundamental difference between jail and prison is the length of stay for inmates. Jail is for short-term sentences and prison is for long-term sentences. Jails are usually run by local law enforcement and/or government agencies, and are designed to hold inmates awaiting trial or serving a short sentence. Prisons are typically operated by either a state government or the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). These are designed to hold individuals convicted of more serious crimes, typically felonies such as rape or murder. Because prisons are designed for long-term incarceration, they offer better facilities and security programs such as halfway houses, work release programs, and community restitution centers. Typically those who are eligible for such programs are nearing the end of their prison terms.
How Many Incarcerated Today?
The United States is the world's leader in incarceration with 2.2 million people currently in the nation's prisons and jails — a 500% increase over the last forty years. Changes in sentencing law and policy, not changes in crime rates, explain most of this increase.
At the federal level, people incarcerated on a drug conviction make up half the prison population. Sentencing policies of the War on Drugs era resulted in dramatic growth in incarceration for drug offenses. Furthermore, harsh sentencing laws such as mandatory minimums keep many people convicted of drug offenses in prison for longer periods of time: in 1986, people released after serving time for a federal drug offense had spent an average of 22 months in prison. By 2004, people convicted on federal drug offenses were expected to serve almost three times that length: 62 months in prison.
Incarceration by Social Status: Race, Gender, Income and More
More than 60% of the people in prison today are people of color.While people of color make up about 30 percent of the United States’ population, they account for 60 percent of those imprisoned.
|
AVERAGE ANNUAL INCOME FOR INCARCERATED AND NON INCARCERATED PEOPLE
|
People who enter the criminal justice system are overwhelmingly poor. Two-thirds detained in jails report annual incomes under $12,000 prior to arrest. Disparities of race, class, gender, and age have produced extraordinary rates of incarceration among young African American men with little schooling. Class inequalities in incarceration are reflected in the very low educational level of those in prison and jail. The legitimate labor market opportunities for men with no more than a high school education have deteriorated as the prison population has grown, and prisoners themselves are drawn overwhelmingly from the least educated. State prisoners average just a tenth grade education, and about 70 percent have no high school diploma.
|
The Basic Process from Arrest to Prison Sentence
- ARREST
- If a police officer believes that you have committed a crime, they may search and arrest you
- They will read you your Miranda rights and but will mostly likely try to continue to question you
- They will then take you to a jail or detension center.
- BOOKING
- Once you arrive to jail corrections officers may take your photo and fingerprints
- They may impound your belongings (including clothing) and give you a uniform
- They can keep you for 36 hours (not including weekends and holidays) before charging you
- FIRST COURT APPEARANCE
- The prosecutor determines your charge
- He or she sets your bail amount
- You can either pay the bail or wait to be let out on Pre-Trial Services
- PROBABLE CAUSE VS CHARGING
- Cops determine probable cause to arrest you but the prosecutor is the one who decides what you’ll actually be charged with in court
- Your charge may not be consistent with what you were arrested for
- PLEA BARGAINING
- You may plead guilty to some or all of the charges against you. Once you do, you cannot take it back
- A "plea" is like a bargain from the prosecutor. You admit to being guilty and accept a punishment which can include fines, probation, drug testing, travel restrictions, etc.
- If you don’t take the pleas offered, your case could go all the way to trial, where you can be found not guilty (acquitted) or convicted and get punished much more severely than what you were offered before.
- TRIAL
- After weeks or months of pre-trial hearings, if you don’t plead guilty and they don’t drop charges, you’ll go to trial
- The majority of criminal cases—more than 90%—don’t go all the way to trial.
- This is a legal battle between the prosecutor and your attorney
- SENTENCING
- The sentencing hearing happens after the plea hearing or the trial
- Sentences may include: incarceration, stay of imposition, stay of adjudication, probation, time served reduction, concurrent (or consecutive) sentences, increased penalties, continuance, etc.
- The sentencing hearing happens after the plea hearing or the trial