Prison

A prison is a place in which people are confined and deprived of a range of liberties. Prisons conventionally are institutions authorized by governments and forming part of a country's criminal justice system, or as facilities for holding prisoners of war. A prison system is the organizational arrangement of the provision and operation of prisons.

Related Topics:
Liberties - Criminal justice - Prisoners of war

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There are a variety of other names for prisons, such as a prison-house, penitentiary or jail (in British English and Australian English, the spelling gaol is sometimes used in a formal contexts, although this spelling is pronounced in the same fashion). There are, also, many colloquial terms for prisons — such as big house, beantown, can, clink, joint, jug, cooler, hoosegow, lockup, lockdown and slammer — and a similar range of terms for imprisonment, including doing time, bird, porridge, working for Copper John, etc.

Related Topics:
British English - Australian English - Colloquial - Porridge - Copper John

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In the United States at least, jail is generally used for facilities where inmates are locked up for a relatively short time (either while awaiting trial or serving a sentence of one year or less upon conviction for a misdemeanor), while prison and penitentiary typically denote a place where inmates go to serve long terms after having been found guilty of a felony. In the United States, jails are usually operated under the jurisdiction of local municipal governments while prisons are operated under the jurisdiction of state or federal governments. In the state of Massachusetts, some jails are known as houses of correction. In Washington some adult prisons are called reformatories, while in other states this is reserved as a term for a prison of the juvenile justice system.

Related Topics:
United States - Misdemeanor - Felony - State - Massachusetts - Washington

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